Because of Tyche's Whims
by relicka
Summary: Fortune. Luck. Destiny. Do such things have a personality? Do such things like some people more than others? Millea was looking for her RL friends in Second Life, but Tyche has other plans for her. Rated T because of the coarse language used by irritated characters.
1. Prologue: Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own 1/2 Prince. All copyrights to Yu Wo.

I just got this leetle idea and wanted to write it. I am not getting paid for writting this and I doubt that I'll ever will, but if I do, please send me to jail. 3

Warning: this isn't proofread.

Leetle guide:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

-Talk through pm-

**System notice/System window**

"SOMEONE SCREAMING/RISING THEIR VOICE"

Prologue: Unknown

I still remeber clearly how everything started. It was also the moment I knew for sure that something was terribly wrong with me...

**Luck: -200**

I was left speechless, and dumbfounded. I fell to my knees as a mountain of thoughts entered my mind at the same time.

'How the hell...' 'There's no way!' ' You gotta be kidding me!' 'This must be a lie...' 'Just how in the world...' 'This must be a joke,' and such thoughts were storming into my brain at lightening speed, but soon they all converged into just one thought: 'I must be dreaming.' So, convinced of this, I logged out from my 'dream', and woke up in my bed, the Second Life headgear still around my head when I opened my eyes to stare at my room's ceiling, which was still concealed by the night's darkness.

Drowsiness heaved down my eyelids, so I closed them again and tried to force myself into the game once more... I wanted to deny with all my mental strength that I had truly entered the game three hours ago though.

I felt myself being pulled into the virtual reality known as Second Life, and perceived the moment my consciousness took a definite form, a form of life different from my own, but which was still me. A second me.

I opened my eyes once more, this time as Millea, the celestial mage... Or so I thought. Or, to say it properly, I was praying with all my might that when I opened my eyes in the game I'd look like a normal celestial again! With fair skin, not-too-delicate but NORMAL hands and fingers and arms and legs, soft and cottonish fluffy wings on my back and framing my face; tinged with a golden shade to them, thin and softly curled bronze coloured hair, and, last but not least important, a NORMAL body...

However, I almost fainted when I looked down to my body. Repeating the scene that had happened previously, before I logged out, I raised my trembling hands - my dark grey, wrinkled and muscled hands - to my eyes' level, and stared at them hopelessly. Then I looked down again in anguish, where my extremely toned chest distorted the form of my cute expensive tunic, which was supposed to mask my low stature and my lack of feminine charm (namely, my lack of a prominent breast and a curved figure even with the 30% beautification), covering it up with cuteness...

However, at that moment my clothes looked about to be teared open by the increase of muscles in my previously thin figure, and below my neck, where my not too revealing cleavage should have made me a into a lovely looking girl (with a plain chest, but lovely still), massive and hairy pectoral muscles were visible, which reminded me of a macho transvestite in a sailor uniform...

"SHITSHITSHITSHIT! I look like a disgusting macho transvestite troll! AAAAARGH!"

I squeezed my magical staff until it almost broke as I cried in anguish.

"My cute character, my beloved character..."

Then I let myself fall to my knees yet again, pretty much doing the same thing I had done before. Once more, I cried out "System," but this time more in defeat than in disbelief.

Then I saw my stats again, my accursed stats...

**Name: Millea | Gender: Female**

**Level: 13 | Race: Troll [Cursed Celestial] | **

**Class: Dark Mage [Cursed Mage] |**

**Reputation: -50 | **

**Health: 100 | Mana: 350 | Unspent skill points: 0 | **

**Strength: 11 | Physique: 10 | Agility:**

**15 | **

**Intelligence: 3 | Willpower: 2 | Wisdom: 1 |**

**Charisma: 10 | Luck: -200**

"What the hell..." Looking at those stats, that was all I could muster. Also, I thought that MINUS two hundred over there could explain this tiny little predicament I got myself into... Besides of ALL of the unfortunate things that had happened to me since I had begun playing this game!

'At least my charisma and mana levels are still rather normal...' I thought, trying to look at the bright side of things.

That lasted only a few moments, however, for while I was there, still with my knees on the ground, a flock of birds passed flying in the sky right above of my head. I looked briefly at that damned -200 stat.

'Oh, no.' I was hit by a sudden realisation, and dove to the left towards the ground. A white 'present' from the flying flock fell on the place where I was kneeling one second ago.

I was about to let out a sigh of relief when something wet hit me on the bridge of the nose... Something wet and white, coming from a bird which passed by flying in the opposite direction as the flock.

"..."

"SYSTEM!" I sat up and screamed in sudden fury. Then I scrolled down to the 'Help' section, and screamed the displayed command to contact a GM, "SYSTEM SUPPORT!"

Ding-Ding!

-Player Millea, I am one of Second Life's Game Masters, Art-Urik. What can I help you with?- A youthful and cheerful male voice resounded around me.

"I think there's a bug with my stats," I tried to explain while I attempted to calm down. I mean, if there was a bug, how could that be this youthful and merry guy's fault? "My 'Luck' stat has just been revealed, and it says my luck is -200! I hadn't paid any attention to my stats since I chose my class at level 10, but I looked-at-it-just-now-anditsaysmyluckisnegavitivea ndiamatrollandallofmystats SUCK!"

Yes, I failed to calm down. But what would you have done if you were turned into a troll? A troll with bird poop on top of your nose?!

-...Huh? Did you just say your luck is -200?- He said slowly, as if he had hardly understood what I had said. I guess I can't really blame him for that.

"YES!"

-...- He stayed silent for a while, a 'while' that was making me more irritated by the minute. When he spoke again, he did so with a sympathetic voice, -I'm kind of sorry to tell you this, Player Millea, but that luck level is not due to a bug.-

"Huh?!" I looked to a spot in the air in front of me with anger, frowning my brow, and I only realised how horrible my voice sounded when I felt a certain ache in my throat, as if I had been growling. My voice sounded like growls!

-U-u-eh, ah, I mean, yes, that, i-it is not a bug.- He spoke with fear in his voice... 'Not only I look and talk like a troll, I also scare people as much as a true troll!' I felt so much like crying.

"Th-then, is it normal for the 'Luck' stat to be so low?" I tried to ask in a sweet voice this time, but obviously failed. I heard myself speaking as a wounded boar sobbing for himself would, if boars could sob or talk.

-N-no, it is not normal either.- He made a pause, during which my head dived within a huge ocean called confusion. I frowned again to try to make him continue talking, although I didn't know if he could see me or not. -W-well, whenever a new avatar is created a random Luck value is generated for it, however, it remains 'unknown' to the player until he or she has played for a while, since the Luck stat is influenced by the events and interactions that the player experiences in the game.- I was about to ask ten questions about this when he resumed his explanation. -For example, let's take a player that began playing yesterday. Today, still with his luck unknown and not totally defined, he encounters a level 25 mob and is utterly defeated, then is robbed by a thief, then dies by tripping over, will definitely have his original Luck stat lowered. But if, by some miracle, he manages to defeat the mob, kill the thief, and restore his health in time, then he will have the stat improved when he is finally capable of seeing it, and this will benefit the player in rising the rare item drop rate for him, as well as his chances to discover dungeons, lower his chances of meeting dangerous mob bosses outside their regular area and rises his chances of finding secret quests.-

I thought abouy this new info for a while, then asked, "So, I'm this unlucky because a lot of bad stuff has happened to me since the beginning, and because of every unfortunate event my bad luck just kept piling up?" I started to think all of the situation was just pure nonsense. "Shouldn't there be some kind of restriction in case someone reaches a NEGATIVE Luck level? How many others are there like me out there?" I asked, frustration clear in my voi- in my growls.

-...There IS a restriction, and you are the only one with a negative Luck stat in the whole of Second Life.-

"HOW can that be!?", I roared. "Just HOW is that NOT a bug!?"

I heard him take some breath in, then he answered, -When the game was designed, one of the developers decided to make it so that there was a 1 in a 100,000,000,000,000,000 chance of getting an initial negative Luck Value...-

I gaped. There I was, the ONLY troll player in Second Life, sitting on the ground, wearing clothes that were too small for my strong body build, with bird poop on my nose, and gaping. I must have been such a sight.

"..."

-...-

"..."

-...Player Millea? Since your doubt is answered, then I bid my farewe-

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" I belowed. "How can I revert this? How can I fix my stats? What am I supposed to do now, if everything goes wrong even when I'm just walking around a park?!"

-...Eh... Well, you could try buying some items that rise the Luck stat...-

"I don't have much money! And with such a Luck stat, how many coins or rare items do you think every mob drops for me? Almost none! Now I know why I had to spend three weeks killining the Wolf King 20 times in order to gain 10 copper coins to finally buy some food..." *Sob* (or *graaawl*)

-... And what had you been eating in the meantime?-

"Eggs from the nests in the forest south to the celestial newbie village."

-J-just eggs?-

"Eggs, and water from a stream." *gryoowl (= buuh)*

-...Then that staff...-

"...I... I killed a player by accident... Now my fame is negative too. At least I could buy these clothes and this superb staff with the money he left behind. I didn't think that was considered stealing if he dropped it on his own when he died..." *hirr hirr (= snif snif)*

-I-is that so...-

Silence fell upon us again, until I said hopeleslly, "I should just quit this game."

-Huh? Oh, I... Don't really think you should.-

"Game Master Art-Urik, you can't even begin to imagine just how much stuff I've been through in these three weeks I've been playing this thing. I somehow thought so many hardships were normal, that I wasn't the only one going through all kind of stupid or disgusting or painful stuff. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've died, but now I know this game is this hard just to me, and I don't find it fair, not even funny. I'm quitting the game." As I stood up from where I was sitting, his voice resounded in the forest again.

-And if I gave you a little help?-

I lifted my head to look upwards again, rising an eyebrow.

-You know, I'm not supposed to do this but... I can access the system and see if there is some way of rising your Luck into positive levels...-

I gaped for two seconds, then yelled (or roared), "PLEASE! I'd love you forever!"

-...There's no need for you to thank me, it's just that I'd also feel very frustrated if I had been the one to hit such an unlucky jackpot...- I guess now that Artie sweatdropped at the thought of being loved forever by a troll.

"..." I made an akward face. My situation was so pitiful that even a GM was willing to do an ecception for my sake.

-Wait a few moments then, please.- He went silent for a long while. In the mean time, I stood up again, and looked at my ugly hands with disgust. I made a mental note to buy some clothes, even if cheap, that helped me look like a... Normal troll instead of a macho tranny troll.

I noticed then that I still had the bird's decorative white 'ribbon' a top of my nose, so I looked around in search for a stream of water or something to wash it off. I had to part from the clearing I had been all this while. The sun was midway to setting already; the sky was tinged of orange to the west and with some bluish gray shade to the east. After walking for a bit, I heard the soft sound of running water. I followed it to find a small stream which joined a lagoon of tranquil waters which reflected the sunset sky perfectly not too far away. I approached the lagoon to apreciate that beautiful reflection.

After taking in the view for a while, I kneeled at the lagoon's border in order to wash my face... But I froze in place. The lagoon was so quiet that it was as perfect as any mirror, and the fugly monster that stared back at me from it couldn't be anything else but... myself.

"Aaaaaahrgh! *hirrrrrr* Goddamnit!" I hit the ground with a fist (a hairy fist).

My appearence was worst than I had dared to imagine. Most of my hair was gone, at least from where it should be. Instead, I had only random long hairs here and there on my scalp, but enough hair on my brow for it to look like a thick haired moustache above my eyes. An ugly and thick black fur also covered my cheekbones. Instead of the cottony small wings that framed my face before, I had horns... Two horns that spiraled backwards from the sides of my forehead, and two small ones under the borders of my now wide mouth, that looked more like a beast's claws than horns. My hazel pupils were now replaced by a pair of bloodshot brilliant yellow eyes, with a thin and short horizontal slit in the middle of them, much like a goat's eyes would look if their eyes were yellow. And my skin... I had assumed that most of my skin had to be dark grey as the one in my arms, but I saw it was not only dark grey, but it was covered by almost black spots at random places, specially my forehead and my chest... I guessed the back of my head had to be full of those. I noticed then I also had something sprouting from my back, which wasn't exactly wings... I was going to reach my hand backwards to touch that whatever-it-was, when I heard my clothes make a sudden tearing sound. It was a brief sound, so I guessed nothing had actually teared open and that it was only the clothes making a faint complain (or warning), but still decided I didn't wanted to risk it to touch the 'thing' back there if it meant my cute dress was going to end up teared up.

Anyway, lets say I looked quite fugly. I am short, like 1.55m in real life and in game, and now I looked like a musculous dwarf with dark and hairy skin. My whole face had become simmilar to a boar's; my nose pointed upwards with huge hairy nostrils, my chin was unusually bony. My neck had become as thick as a tree; my shoulders were wide and strong... In appearance. I couldn't forget that my class was still 'mage', so my physical strength was low compared to my new figure. I couldn't even tell if I still had breasts or they had been 'swallowed' up by my new muscles. I'd be wondering if I was still a female if not for the fact that my profile stated so. My torso and abdomen seemed to be that of a bodybuilder, except for the fact that my back was a bit hunched over and I was so short in height. My legs and arms were also thick and hairy, and my feet were just BIG (and hairy, of course). They had even destroyed my delicate boots! *huuurr* (= sob).

After deciding that I needed to find a way to end this curse before anything else, I finally lowered my head and splashed my ruged face with fresh water, to remove the 'white decoration' and to clear my ideas.

I sat there by the lagoon, waiting. I was getting hungry, but I wondered just how in the world was I supposed to climb a tree when my clothes were about to be teared open even when I moved just a little, so I resolved I'd just wait for the moment.

The sky in the east was already starry, but on the west there was still a bit of yellow colored sky left when Art-Urik contacted me again.

-Player Millea?-

"Art-Urik!"

-You can just call me Urik. Anyway, I hacked into the system and looked up some more info about your... situation. Please accept the following scroll.- He then proceeded to send me an item (In Second Life items can't be transfered between users who are separated by any kind of distance, but of course, Artie is a GM). -It contains most of the information i could find about your particular situation.- I accepted the scroll when a small window with the request appeared in front of me, and muttere- growled a 'thank you'. -Please read it later. I will briefly explain now its contents, and the contermeasures I've thought for you to try. Your stat will be getting lower and lower the more unlucky events happen to you. The system recognizes your 'bad luck' and will continue to generate unlucky events for you to experience. Listen well; when you're faced with any unlucky situation please think as fast as you can so that you will gain something from it, anything at all. If you do this, if you manage to get any profit from the unlucky things, then the decrease of the Luck stat won't be as bad, and it might even rise your luck a little.-

I was about to retort that there's no way that i could have done anything against that darned bird from earlier when he spoke again.

-Of course you won't be able to gain something from every one of the system's triggered events, but please at least try to. Another way to succesfully rise your Luck stat may lay in your interactions with other players. Since the system can't control the players' minds, they can show you kindness when interacting with you, and this will be recognised as a lucky event by the system.-

"..." 'As if anyone would show kindness to a troll...'

-And lastly... I didn't find any regular way to 'revert' your Luck, but I found a secret quest that provides +450 Luck points when completed.-

I opened my eyes as wide as they could go (which should have been a terrifying sight, for they are so freaking ugly...) "REALLY?!"

-Eh... Yes. Amongst other prizes. The thing is, this quest is rated SS, and was designed for people with 'normal' Luck to accomplish. In other words, for you, it would be twice or thrice as hard to complete, because every step you took could go wrong...-

"No matter! If there's a chance to get a positive Luck, then I'll take any chance I get! I mean, things can't get much worse than now..." Or so I thought.

-Alright then, please accept this scroll with the quest's information.- A new small window appeared in front of me again. I pressed accept, and another scroll was transfered into my pouch.

-I'll briefly explain it to you. First, you have to look for 14 orbs within the continent. Then you have to destroy the underground chambers of Seth, which can be accessed through a tunnel at the peak of Scarlet Mountain, and rescue an imprisoned NPC and lead her to the surface. Once there you have to convince her that you are not another form of Seth, who can change shapes, and have her accompany you to the northern coast of the continent and ride a boat to the Northern Continent in order to retrieve a huge treasure, but you must never touch nor attempt to steal it from her. Afterwards you must return to the Central Continent and to Scarlet Mountain, return to the underground chamber and hand her the 14 orbs you sought previously which she'll use to revive her father and restore his underground kingdom. He then rewards you with lots of crystal coins, epic equipment, +Luck, +Fame, +Levels, and other secret prizes.-

"Isn't there a short way about it?"

-No.-

"...then i guess i'll take it anyway *Hurrff* (=sigh). Thank you for this, Art-Uri- ah, no, ehh... Urik. I'll never forget what you've done for me." Sure, I still haven't.

-You're welcome, Player Millea. I wish you... The best of Lucks. *giggle*- 'Did he just giggle at my missfortune?' -By the way, there's something I wanted to ask but...-

"...?"

-Why did you request to play as an orc?-

"I am a troll! Wait, that's not the problem! I did NOT request this! I got cursed! This is a stupid CURSE! Aaargh! Who in the world would willingly want to be this ugly!?" I roared.

-Oh... That's why I was curious; I thought you had chosen it on your own.-

"Of course not! I was a celestial mage, now I am a mage... No, a dark mage troll. Even my class is clasified as 'cursed'..." *hiirrr hirrr* (=sniff sniff)

-Dark mage? Wow, isn't that neat? I bet you gained some cool abilities!-

"I-I haven't checked yet... System!" I glanced again at those damned stats... 'Thanks to my ancestors I still have some charisma. A charismatic troll, you won't find another in Second Life,' I snorted inwardly.

-Say 'Show stats' so that I can see them too!- 'Isn't he a leetle bit too hyper about this?' I thought.

"Show stats."

-Cursed class, huh...- He muttered.

I scrolled down to watch my abilities. And I was left speechless yet again.

**Abilities: Supreme Domina – Ability Level 1, can take control of any minion or invocation summoned by another player of lower level than the caster, will use up 100 mana per minute / Negate – Ability Level 1, can cancel attacks which consume mana from any NPC or player of lower level than the caster, will use up 450 mana / Corrupt - Ability Level 1, corrupts one mana cosuming attack casted in a radium of 15 meters, will use up 40 mana.**

"...I don't have any offensive ability of my own?"

-A cursed class indeed... You can't defend against physical attacks, and the 3 of your 3 abilities depend of someone else using magic first...-

*Rahrahrah* (Hahaha) I laugh- I growled a hopeless laughter. "And the last one, Corrupt, what do you think it does?"

-I'm not sure, but I don't think I'd like to know, and if I was you, I'd avoid to cast it...-

"..." He was right; if the ability corrupted a spell, or more accurately, a random spell within the area, with my Luck level I'd probably be killed by it by an unpredictable magical blast... "Urik, I want to lift this curse before I set off to complete the quest; I know you've done a lot to help me, but-"

-Hold on a sec.- He interrupted me. -You got cursed by an NPC, correct?- I made a confused face, and noded. -Then the only one who can lift the curse is another NPC. However, with your luck, approaching an NPC and requesting its help without being turned into a slime...-

I understood what he meant.

-By the way, the NPC which cursed you...?-

"Uh... She was called The Lady of Hallome, in the tower which is a bit to the..." I scanned the forest, already obscured by the night, and pointed to where I thought the tower should be.

-I know her; she's one of the kindest NPCs you can find. How did you...?-

"I don't wanna talk about it." I pouted. Hardly a cute reaction when a komodo dragon looks cuter than you do.

-Alright...- 'Is it just me or there was dissapointment in his voice just now?' -But follow my advice: try to rise your Luck stat before you attempt to lift the curse, or you might become blind or something.-

"...A wise advice." I guessed it was time for goodbyes, but somehow I didn't want to be alone again. "Thank you for everything."

-You're welcome, Player Millea. Oh, please don't tell anyone whom you've received help from, nor who has given you the info for the secret quest, nor tell anyone that you've found out that you are the only one in the game with a negative Luck stat. It might get me in trouble.-

"I get it, I won't tell anyone."

-Have a good night, Player Millea.-

"You too, Urik, have a good night."

Ding!

That 'ding' signaled the end of my communication with Artie, and the beginning of all this.

So here am I, a lava lake at my back, and a swarm of level 80 mobs in front of me; weaponless, 'mana-less', almost 'HP-less', and hopeless. Did I mention that the rebirth point is right in the middle of the level 80 mob swarm?

Yes, that was how this all started. Darn stupid -200 Luck stat. Fucking stupid quest. Damned stupid game.

Oh, Artie, you don't know how I wish you were right here with me now... So I could kick you into the lava lake and then let you get MPK'd to level 1, while I growl: 'To hell with you'.

-o-

Prologue: 'I curse you Artie for not letting me give up back then,' End.

Hi hi~

I wonder if this was funny to you... I have a weird humor.

In case you're wondering, no, i don't hate Millea, i like her! But she will go through a lot of things in this game!

Yes, the name Millea I took it from 07 Ghost! (Although probably not many will recognise that! XD) It sounds nice to me :3

I don't know if I'll ever update this fic, I simply wanted to write something different. I mean, I have ten thousand ideas for this girl... But I'm just soooo lazy! XD. So if I update, it might not be anytime soon. Nor will i promise long chapters.

(Btw, feel free to point out any mistakes you see. ETA: I fixed a couple of things.)

Ty for reading :3


	2. Chapter 1: Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own 1/2 Prince. All copyrights to Yu Wo.

Warning: this is spellchecked, but not proofread.

Leetle guide:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

-Talk through pm-

**System notice/System window**

"SOMEONE SCREAMING/RISING THEIR VOICE"

-o-

I sat down. The lava lake is still back there, and the mob army is still right in front of my nose. And I'm still 'mana-less'. Ugh, this is horrible. What am I supposed to do now? Maybe I should just log out for today, after all, there's nothing I can do about all this crap, is there? More than anything, I can't believe I killed SexyGuy... He's got to be hating me with all his might about now.

I still remember how I met SexyGuy. That pigheaded SexyGuy, proud SexyGuy, hot SexyGuy. And Wolfie, of course. There's no way I can forget that. That's right, what will happen to Wolfie if SexyGuy hits level 1? Will Wolfie become a wild pet? It should be the same for Blackie, too. Although I get the feeling Blackie would still follow me around even if it became a wild pet. Not that it can follow me anywhere when I might be trapped in here forever and ever. What would happen with it if I never log in again?

Maybe there's a chance that Cutehottie can get me out of here, but he wouldn't be able to do it on his own. However, I bet his team will refuse helping me out this time. Ah, Cutehottie, you're so airheaded, and yet so hot it makes one wonder if all of your extra hotness points came from sacrificing your wisdom and intelligence points.

Now that's a question I regret not asking. Seriously.

Now that you've left, I already feel like seeing you again, so I'll dedicate the next few moments remembering how I met you.

Chapter 1: Unknown

He crushed his maze into my head with an unexpected force.

Huh... That hurt. A lot. The worst part was, I didn't die immediately. I was alive when he sunk his maze into my face. That also hurt like hell. I died after that.

Okay, maybe that was sudden, but that is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of how I met the guy in question. But let's start from where things should start; to the beginning of the path which took me here.

To continue from where I stopped earlier, I have to go back to the night I talked to Artie. Yes, you know, Artie - Art-Urik. The GM that told me about this quest, the guy who told me not to give up. If I had given up, SexyGuy would be enjoying his time annoying the hell out of some random player with a weird pet (the Overlord might be a candidate) instead of dying by 'MPK-ment'.

Back on topic, that night I was getting hungry as hell. Thirst wasn't a problem, but I didn't want to lose one of my hard gained levels by dying of starvation, so I began to formulate a plan to get something to eat without climbing a tree.

The plan never occured to me. A small party of man-eating slimes came crawling from my left, following the lagoon's borders. I considered my options. 1.- run. 2.- hit them with something. 3.- ...

There were no more options...

So I held my magical stick (the staff) firmly and hit the top of the nearest slime with it. 'I'm sorry to all of this world's magicians who would DIE for owning this AWESOME magical stick, but I have no direct offensive attack, so, the pointy things surrounding the red shiny ball inserted in the staff will have to serve as a trident.' I thought as I inserted those 'spikes' in the second slime that approached me.

Why didn't I use my newbie knife, you say? Easy, I was robbed. I've been robbed several times in this game, but the time I was robbed my newbie knife is the most pathetic I've experienced...

Back to the slimes, I kicked the third (it felt disgusting to have it explode around my toes), used the spiky stick to hit a fourth on the side and thus pushing it into the water, then used that momentum to hit the fifth on top of it.

**Man-eating slime, -30 HP. Man-eating slime ****h****as died.** **Man-eating slime, -30 HP. Man-eating slime has died. Man-eating slime, -30 HP. Man-eating slime has died. Man****b****-eating slime, -30 HP. Man-eating slime has died. Man-eating slime, -30 HP. Man-eating slime has died.**

The problem laid with the sixth. It jumped towards me before I could react, and pushed me backwards when it hit me in the chest.

**Millea, -15 HP.**

"..." It didn't hurt as much as I remembered... Or rather, the last time I faced a slime was when I was still Level 4 (the last time I reached Level 4 after dying once more, to be precise), and my total Health was 70 HP. Since I was weaker then, maybe the pain was greater? (for the record, just the previous day my total HP was of 150, but after the curse my HP was reduced to 100).

I reaffirmed my grip on the magical stick, and stabbed the slime as it jumped towards me once again.

**Man-eating slime, -30 HP. Man-eating slime has died. Millea has gained new ability - Piercing Torch. **

'Ah, that felt so good.' I was content with that. I wasn't entirely weaponless! Maybe I should have chosen to be a warrior. I looked at the stick in my hand, the Stone Torch. This magical stick (or staff) was commonly called the Excalibur of the magicians. Only a few of them were sold, and each of them was a different color, although all of them had the same attributes. Mine had a red sphere on top of it, so it's particular name was Crimson Stone Torch. The staff was made of colored stone, but it was magically light and easy to carry around. If the user was a mage of level 60 or above, it could change into a bracelet.

But I was a lousy mage of Level 13. Still, this stone stick of both curved and angular forms duplicated my mana points, amplified the range of my attacks by a random number between 1.5 and 3, and made them three times stronger. And it worked as an excellent hitting bat and piercing trident. What else could you ask for? Oh, it also recovered 10% of your HP per hour. Quite handy, right?

As for how I got it... Let's say that it still was an unfortunate event in the end.

I decided I could continue like that... I could fight as a warrior while I discovered how to use my accursed magic against physical attacks. If I ever found a way.

I spent the rest of the night attempting to hunt. Yep, attempting. I tried to set a trap for bunnies by digging a hole in the ground, then covering it with thin tree branches and leaves. Needless to say I had to use my hands and a flat stone for digging. Afterwards I tried to fabricate one of those traps where you make a loop with a rope which activates when the prey walks on it, and leaves it hanging head down. I didn't had any rope so I had to use some vines. Lastly, I tried to make a bow. I searched for a long flexible branch, and innocently believed I could use a vine as the bow's string. When I tried to tense it, the 'string' was immediately cut by the tension, and one of its lose ends flew quickly towards my open eye.

**Millea, HP -20.**

I jumped backwards in pain... Just to have my left foot sink into a stupid bunny hunting hole.

**Millea, HP -5.**

Somehow, I decided it was time to log out for the night.

-o-

When I logged in again, I still had my foot in the hole. Trying to get it out, I sprained the ankle of my right foot.

**Millea, HP -5.**

Oh, how I wished I had a health potion with me. 'Well, my enchanted trident should repair that damage within an hour.'

Once free I opened my pouch and took out my newbie outfit... 'Good thing that the thief didn't bother taking this with her. I hope this clothes fit me better than my blue and white dress.'

It happened that once awake, I smarted up (maybe my low Intelligence stat also kept me from having good ideas whilst in game), so I read Second Life's manual to look for something that could help me. And I did find something: in every major city there exists a Tailoring Shop, where you may take your dirtied/burned/rip clothes, and they can be repaired by some fee if the clothes have up to a 40% of damage.

So I looked for a well covered area in the forest, and began to undress by tearing the pretty dress down. I felt so much like crying...

I used this chance to investigate what the hell had sprouted at my back. I felt like I had two of them, but I had no idea of what they might be. I moved my right hand above my left shoulder, and attempted to touch 'it'. By the feel of it, I thought it could be a malformed wing, except it was more muscular than a wing should have been. I tried to move 'them', and 'they' moved. I frowned. I'd have to ask someone to tell me what in the world they were. 'I should have asked Ureic... Huh? No, it wasn't 'Ureic'. What was his name? Arturaik? No, not that either. Mmm, Artie should do.'

And that's how he became Artie.

I also took off my destroyed boots (they were broken beyond repair), and I quickly put on the newbie dress. Sure, the thing fit me better, but I still looked like a drag-macho-tranny. I also put on my newbie boots. It seems that those things were made to fit one's body magically.

Now that there was nothing to stop me from eating an omelet, I began my search for eggs.

Needless to say, I didn't walk for long before I was hanging from my sprained ankle, head pointing to the ground...

**Millea, HP -10.**

And I was trapped there for a long while, since my ankle hurt so I couldn't move around too much.

I'd like to say that I managed to escape my own trap, but my luck doesn't work like that. I was hanging alone in the forest for one, two hours, and dawn came. Then I heard some voices.

I hurriedly screamed (roared) for help. I didn't care they'd laugh at my stupidity for getting caught in my own trap. The perspective of staying there for another hour or more didn't exactly tempt me.

Can I give you a little advice? When you look uglier than a hairy cousin of Godzilla which has been sprayed with acid on the face, even if you are trapped NEVER yell for help. Least of all don't you _roar_ for help.

The moment a bunch of four people were visible, I felt a shiver running down (or up) my spine. They all had their weapons in hand. Three women, one guy. One archer, two warriors (one of them was the guy, and he had an axe) and a mage. I hurriedly tried to explain that there was no need for them to ready their weapons, since I only wanted them to help me get down.

An arrow got stuck in my gut, and I understood what was going on; they thought I was a mob. I growled in pain. Needless to say that my head was soon cut off by the warrior's axe... And I flew to the sky.

When I came to be, I was in a small town's rebirth point. I felt like throwing up all that was in my stomach: air. So I vomited nothing in a corner. When I stood up, I was surrounded by players pointing at me with spears, hammers, arrows and swords, all of them talking to each other as if I couldn't understand them.

But first thing first: I straightened my posture and put pressure in my sprained ankle; it was painless. I sighed (*hurrrrh*). I had no pain, but I was at level 12. Yet again.

I looked at the people around me. Then I spoke (I growled): " Have I stolen something from you?" It took them a while to answer, as they all seemed startled by the fact I could speak. 'Damn you, derp-brains, I'm not some monster! I'm a player! Have you ever seen a mob walking out of a rebirth point, or throwing up? Huh? Have you?'

Some of them frowned, others raised an eyebrow in clear amusement, but most growled out a 'no'.

"Then have I killed a friend of yours?"

They looked at each other, then answered 'no'. The ones which were amused displayed some kind of smile and began lowering their weapons.

But one of the tallest guys, which also looked very violent and vicious, was still frowning when he stepped out of the crowd and stood in front of me.

I subconsciously crouched a little; the guy was huge! 'H-he should be about two meters tall...' He carried a heavy hammer in his right hand. He looked at me from head to toe, then from toe to head. I shivered.

"What's your race?" He asked, or commanded, since the tone of his deep voice made it sound like he was imposing some sort of authority upon me.

That ticked me off a little. "That's none of your concern," I replied in a sour tone. (Or in a sour growl).

He looked at me again from head to toe and from toe to head, this time putting on a disgusted expression, and turned to leave.

"...who do you think you are to look at me like that, you asshole!" Nope, I couldn't stay quiet. I just couldn't.

He stopped in his turning, directed me a fierce glance, then smirked. "However I look at you, no matter who I am, nor how much of an asshole I may be," he made a gesture with his free hand, slowly signaling himself with his open palm, "I'm still much better than you."

That set my blood on fire. "You BASTAR-"

"Don't, Jarlaxle! Please, don't!" I was extremely surprised. In front of me there was a human young woman. Her arms wide open, and her back towards me. 'She's protecting me?'

"Don't worry, Azalea. I have no intention of wasting my time killing such a freak." The giant said mockingly.

"You dork-!

"Please, forgive him on my behalf!" The woman turned to face me, and attempted to calm me down. She had lilac hair, light blue eyes, and was a pretty young woman. She seemed to be a mage.

"..."

I lowered my staff, and growled in frustration and defeat. The guy in question sent me another disdainful glance then left crossing through the crowd that had gathered, while saying loudly enough for everyone to hear: "Come fight me when you get some balls, you tranny freak."

"I AM A GIRL!" I bellowed with rage. My yell was followed by an awkward silence. Everyone in the crowd turned to look at me, sending me... You know, that kind of glance. The one which says 'Uuuh, sure, dude; whatever you say.' The female mage however sent me a sympathetic glance...

"SYSTEM!" I roared. Everyone jumped at my yell. "SHOW STATS!" As soon as the window was visible to everyone, I pointed a finger of my free hand at the word 'Female'.

"...!" Their faces were priceless. They looked at the word, then at me, then at the word... Several times. Some managed to recover rather quickly, and put on confused expressions when they noticed the word 'cursed'. I closed my stats then. I didn't want to answer any questions.

The player named Azalea looked like she wanted to ask something, but didn't got the chance to.

"Now, what are you all looking at?!" I bellowed at the crowd, which reluctantly dispersed, but kept looking back at me. I turned to the female mage.

"Thank you for protecting me, kind lady, But I'd like to- *groooowwwaaaaeeerrrrurururur *"

If I could blush, then at that moment I'd have been beet red. Azalea was scared at first, for she thought I was growling at her, but since my stomach's rant was so long, she had enough time to realize the growl came from my belly.

"...how about I treat you to a meal? Would that pay for my bro's rude behavior?"

'Foooood!? Like HELL I'd say no!' "I'd be most honored to be treated to a meal by you, Lady Azalea," I said, trying to act as if I wasn't blushing as hell (though I wasn't. I discovered some time after this incident that I don't blush. The color of my skin doesn't change, unless I'm covered with blood or dirt...).

She chuckled. 'She's very cute,' I thought. "But I have a question, isn't it bothersome to have such a rude older brother?"

"...He's my younger brother."

"Younger? How old is he?"

"16, and he's already full of wrinkles. *chuckle*"

'He's younger than me! Grrr, such an arrogant brat!'

"Come on, let's go before your belly scares half the town away! *giggle*"

"Rahrahrahrah" I growled what should have been an embarrassed laughter...

-o-

I don't remember having cried so much since I was a crybaby little girl.

It was just udon in a small shop (a few bowls of udon, actually), but it was so delicious to my soul that I couldn't stop the tears. That's what happens when you eat just eggs for almost a whole month.

When I finished my food, I asked Azalea to tell me just what in the world had sprouted at my back. She made me turn around, and made a weird expression.

"It's another pair of arms."

My jaw reached the floor. "I have ARMS o-on my back?"

"Yeah... Can you feel with them?" I nodded. "And move them?" I moved them a little, then turned around to face her. Her face displayed a disgusted expression, but it was very different from her brother's. It wasn't meant to hurt; it was just her being sincere.

-o-

I bowed to her once and again and again to show my gratitude to her, then decided it was time to hunt once more, so we went our separate ways. I won't detail this story because I haven't met Azalea ever again, and because I want to hurry in telling how I met Cutehottie.

As I left the town, every pair of eyes was staring at me, and I could hear an irritating background whispering, which probably was about my gender...

Once I was a bit far from the village, someone called my name.

"E-ehh, player Millea?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned to my left, where 3 of the people that had killed me earlier were standing. It was the guy, and two of the girls. The three of them were evidently nervous. The warrior girl was missing.

Long story short, they wanted to apologize. They knew I was a player only when I flew as a pillar of light and blahblahblah.

They asked how could they repay their mistake (such nice people), and I thought of looooots of ways, but finally noticed they were wearing capes.

Sure enough, the sky was rapidly becoming darker; it could be rain, but I thought 'storm'. So I asked if they had an extra cape. They had one, one of the girls had bought a new one recently and she didn't need the old one. I thanked them, and we parted.

That's the same old cape I usually wear now. Why haven't I bought a new one? No idea. Maybe I've been having so much fun that I didn't care about clothes anymore.

I left the path and entered the forest as rain started to pour. I pulled the hood of the cape, then began looking for some easy mob to train and gain something... Even if I had to train for another month, I needed money if I intended to travel.

I walked for a while, then I stopped. Something felt odd. What was it?

"..." The rainy cloud seemed to pass by, and the rain was gone. The sun shone through the leaves of the trees. I calmly removed my cloak and put it inside my pouch.

"...I've been too lucky." As I said this aloud, a noise came from behind me, the noise of something big stepping on a tree branch.

*crack*

I rapidly jumped to the side, just in time to avoid being pierced by a giant cricket, but not fast enough to avoid getting hurt; the cricket severed my left arm. *raaaawrch!* (=ooooouch!).

**Millea, -20 HP. Millea has learned new ability - Dark omen.**

Something dark and green started to pour from my severed arm... But I didn't have time to think. I jumped to my left again as the cricket charged towards me, and when it passed, I hit it from behind with my magistick.

**Mute Cricket, -5 HP.**

I almost fell to the ground when doing this; the loss of my arm disoriented me. If you ever get an arm cut, remember, you will have equilibrium problems.

I discovered I could fight the thing in this manner. I leaped to the side when it came towards me, and used the chance to attack it from behind. The insect was resistant, however, and I danced around for 20 minutes in this way before it died.

It left behind 1 copper coin.

I examined my wound, and was horrified to find out that my blood was dark green in color. 'Yuck.'

I needed to stop the bleeding, I was feeling ultra dizzy, but noticed my blood didn't flow as fast as it should... Maybe being a troll meant I was physically more resistant? (Or that my blood was more like jelly.)

I left my staff in the ground, took out my cloak, covered my wound with it and pressed. Then I looked for my severed arm. It was laying by a tree root. I stared at it, then considered my options. 1.- Leave it there and hope my magistick would seal the wound within two hours. 2.- take my arm and hope the magistick could heal my arm by sticking it back...

I stopped the pressing on the wound to pick the arm and put it in my pouch, then resumed my pressing. I began to mentally review my battle. It was exciting, but...

But my luck stat was -200.

*tumtumtooom*

'Was that a background music? A gloomy background music?' I looked all around to look for the source of the music, and saw a bug running towards me. A regular cricket. I stomped on it.

**Mute cricket, HP -30. Mute cricket has died.**

"..." Before I could think anything at all about this 'attack', another cricket came to me; I stomped on it too. And two more came, and ten more behind, guiding a whole army of RL-sized crickets that covered the forest's ground.

'They have come to avenge their mother!' I turned around, put my cloak back into my pouch, picked up my staff and dashed away as fast as I could, leaving behind me a dark green trail that looked like goo.

Why didn't I stay to fight? Come on, would you? In my state? Only one healthy arm, against hundreds of fast crickets which would kill you by taking small portions of your skin and muscles and organs away? Like carnivorous ants? Nope. I didn't want to stay.

I run until I saw a river, then got an idea (sometimes I get some of those!) I got to the water and entered the river until the water reached my knees. I looked back at the bugs; they didn't enter the water.

'Yeah!'

I felt dizzy again, so I wanted to stop the bleeding, but I was using my right hand to hold my staff. The river seemed deep at the center and was quite wide (I don't know how to swim).

Subconsciously, I tried to move my left hand.

And something moved inside my pouch.

**Millea has learned new ability - Spawn.**

"What the hell..."

-o-

About these abilities, I like more Dark Omen than Spawn. Dark Omen plays a background music (some sort of gloomy musical interlude) when the system generates an unlucky event for me, but only if I realize that the system is 'acting odd'. I leveled this ability to level 84, and it has improved in many ways since then. It is one hell of an ability. The other... *shrug* I'll leave that for later...

-o-

That night I had crickets for dinner. How? I hit them with my magistick from the water, since they refused to leave and I couldn't stay there forever... I even started counting them out of boredom. I lost count around the 400th. Listen to my advice: crickets are more delicious when eaten raw rather than eaten in soup.

Anyway, the magistick healed 10 percent of my HP while I fought the bugs, and the other 10 after I finished eating. And my arm, I put it next to my shoulder and my muscles and veins and bones and skin reunited with it on their own *shrug*. Courtesy of the 'spawn' ability. I wasn't sure why it was called 'spawn', though.

I was enjoying the quiet night when I heard some screaming. I considered my options. 1.- approach the players and get killed. 2.- watch from afar if it's safe to approach. 3.- do nothing.

Yay! My options had increased. I chose number three.

But two light beams went flying to the sky, then another, then one more, from somewhere near the river, to the east. Now I was curious. I saw a small hill with lots on trees on top in that direction, and said "Why not?" as I approached.

Another white light flying towards the milky way... Oh, the night was cloudy. Then, towards the dark cottoncandies in the sky.

I hid amongst the trees, and watched at the battle down there at the feet of the hill. And saw Cutehottie for the first time.

Needless to say, the hill was covered in my drool within seconds.

He was fighting two mobs; a spiky mace held in both hands, and was the hottest guy I've ever seen. Save for Huang Qiu from 'ELECTRA'. That guy is a god.

This guy wasn't a god, but was surely the hottest guy on earth. Tall. Not-too-short, silver hair with purple streams. A bit tanned, not too much, just the PERFECT tone of skin. And such a body, heck, it's got to be a sin to be so hot. (Insert your idea of the hottest guy on earth here if this doesn't satisfy you. The thing is, drop your boyfriend and follow this guy instead.) He was covered in blood and sweat, and was panting as if he had fought an army. I looked closer; there were about 30 dead nymphs laying amongst the trees.

It seemed him and his team fought bravely, but only he survived. He looked very tired, the bloody weapon still in his grip. And he was looking my way.

"Hey," he said.

Before I knew it, I had climbed down the hill during the fight, and was standing at 5 meters from him. He had killed the remaining nymphs and stared at me warily.

"H-hey." I stammered. "Y-you fought very well."

He lifted his weapon and rested it on his right shoulder. "Thank you."

"Y-you are welcome." That felt stupid. Silence fell as a thick curtain until he spoke again.

"Um, I'd like to ask you a question..." I already guessed what he was going to ask. "What kind of-?"

"Millea. I'm a troll." I said, searching for any gesture of disgust in his face, but I found none. Instead he looked enlightened. I relaxed a little, then continued. "Well, you see, I-"

"I thought so." He interrupted me. "A troll." Before I could understand what he meant, he crushed his maze into my head with an unexpected force.

**Millea, HP -65.**

That hurt. A lot. The worst part was, I didn't die immediately. I was alive when he sunk his maze into my face. That also hurt like hell. I died after that.

Look, he's as hot as hot can be, but some screws might be loose inside his head. He tends to do that kind of unexpected stuff. Like talking to mobs. You see, talking to an NPC is one thing; but attempting to talk with slimes...

-o-

So, the level-11-me left the rebirth point feeling like vomiting crickets.

I walked slowly at first, but hurried a little when I noticed that every player in the street either pointed at me or whispered in someone else's ear. Damn stupid town (the reason I wasn't surrounded on the spot was that this was the same town from earlier, Wind Town, so most players had seen me already or heard about me).

I also passed a team of five people who were ready to jump on top of me to kill me, which they'd do if not for the fact I just had walked out from the rebirth point, and followed the town's main street towards the town square. I chose a bench, took out my cloak (which I had washed in the river and dried by the fire I had made), and prepared to sleep. Somehow I didn't exactly feel like thinking about what the fuck had happened back there in the forest.

Just as I was starting to fall asleep, someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Nghrrr..." I gave a low growl. I lifted my hood a little to look at the person who had tapped me.

A tall guy was frowning in front of me. I couldn't tell his features very well because one of the square's lamps was right behind him, casting his face in the shadows.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up, but my friend says he's sorry."

Now it was my turn to frown as I tried to understand what he was talking about. I looked past him and saw four girls at his back, with all sort of expressions on their faces. Worried, scared, angry and disgusted, to be more precise. They all were the group of people I had passed earlier. They probably were Cutehottie's team.

"S'okay." I growled. Then I closed my eyes again, to try to sleep, but opened them suddenly and added, "Tell him to treat me to lunch tomorrow and he's forgiven."

I felt the guy's stare like a piercing laser on my forehead, but he nodded. He then proceeded to look at the night sky (he was talking through PM with Cutehottie) and said, "He agrees."

"Thank you then, and good night." This time, I fell asleep instantly. I was mentally exhausted. Now I think of it, I probably snored.

-o-

What'd you do if you enter a restaurant to have a nice meal and there is a troll in there having a nice meal already?

Well, every person who entered the place made a weird expression. But the guy in front of me, a descendant from Adonis, Helen of Troy, and Brad Pitt, didn't even notice. He was smiling the most charming smile I've ever and will ever see.

If not for the fact people kept sending me odd vibes, I'd have melted on the chair.

He liked to talk. He was there when I woke up, looking at me with his pretty mismatched eyes; one was purple, the other was light blue. He told me to meet him at mid-day at that very bench, then dashed away. I relaxed since I had time and an assured meal, and used the free time to read carefully the scrolls I received from Artie. I'll explain them at some point.

At the signaled time, he came running towards me and grabbed my hand. I blushed inwardly. He asked me to forgive him, in person this time. I said it was alright.

He started to walk without letting go of my hand, and took me to the most expensive restaurant in town, then began talking. I wasn't listening to what he was saying, though. I was eating, and staring at him. That was all my brain managed to do.

"...ing a troll?"

"Wrrahr?" My mouth was full of spaghetti, and I didn't hear what he was saying. All I knew was that he had asked a question.

He giggled. 'Soooo cuuuute!' "I asked, 'what are the advantages of being a troll'?" He repeated before taking more food to his mouth with his fork.

"Advantages?" I blinked. "There are none," I replied, downcast.

"Then why are you playing as a troll?" He lifted a brow and inclined his head to the side. It made me think of a small puppy.

"I..." I bit my lip. I didn't want to tell anyone how I got cursed, but damn, he was looking at me so sweetly It made me waver. *hurrrh (sigh)* "My Luck stat is negative, so I keep suffering one calamity after another." His eyes went wide with interest. "I was turned to a troll by an NPC because of my bad luck." 'There. I said it without the details. You better don't ask anymore!'

"Your Luck stat is negative? How come?"

I couldn't really tell him, could I? "It happens from time to time; if you experience unlucky events then your luck starts going down. Too many unlucky things will result in a negative stat," I lied. Telling him the truth might have exposed Artie.

"Oh, I didn't know that." 'Of course you didn't' I thought. "Then Tyche dislikes you, huh?"

"Whom?"

"Tyche. Greek goddess of luck! She was called Fortune in Rome. The Greeks believed it was her who decided whether you'd be lucky or disgraced in life. What's your Luck level?"

"...-200."

"Wow... That's amazing on its own way."

We finished our meals. Soon after that, he said goodbye to me and left to find his team.

After he'd left, I realized I didn't know his name... And so I nicknamed him Cutehottie.

-o-

Thinking back now, I'd like to tell you, Cutehottie, that you were wrong. Tyche doesn't dislikes me, she hates me!

Tyche, If it's true that people's fate is yours to decide, then get me out of here! If I've offended you now or in my previous lives, then don't you think I've suffered enough already?

"Please, somebody take me out of here!"

Chapter 1: 'Tyche, I'm Really Really Really Really Sorry For Whatever I Did', End.

-o-

-o-

I was wondering if this narrating style is too confusing. If you'd prefer me to narrate everything from Past!Millea's PoV, rather than Trapped!Millea's PoV, then please let me know through a review or a pm. Just the word 'past' in a message would do. If no one says anything, then I'll continue with the narration as it is.

Btw, i bet you realised i'm not a native english speaker. I hope my writing isn't too messy XD

Also, the staff she weilds is the one I drew. Yep, that's her before the curse. Nope, she's not ugly but she's flat as a board. Now imagine a troll wearing that dress. *shiver*

I tend to nickname people, animals and objects. Millea is far worse than me, though. She will come up with a nickname for everyone. I hope that doesn't make things too complicated. And i don't know why, but i get the feeling this chapter was a little long...

-o-

Also, chinese speakers out there,I need a little advice for some names.

Are these valid chinese names? For girls: Meng Hua, Lifen, Ju, Biyu? And yes, Qiu for a guy? XD

-o-

there'll be blueberry muffins for those who tell me where I took the names Denna and Jarlaxle.


	3. Chapter 2: Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own 1/2 Prince. All copyrights to Yu Wo.

Warning: this isn't proofread, just spell-checked. Beware: I like to come up with new words.

Leetle guide:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

-Talk through pm-

**System notice/System window**

"SOMEONE SCREAMING/RISING THEIR VOICE"

-o-

Since then, I've developed some sort of 'resistance' to Cutehottie's... Hotness. I can talk to him without drooling, and I can actually listen and understand most of what he says. But the fact I understand his words doesn't mean I find sense in his speech.

His head is full of air. At least he's nice.

The truth is, I'm being unfair with him. He IS an airheaded oblivious bishie, but he also taught me something that made my journey more enjoyable. Never mind the end of my journey being so crappy. At least I enjoyed my way here.

Chapter 2: Unknown.

What happened afterwards was rather... 'Lucky'. I left the village using a different route than before, and discovered the reason it was called Wind Town. A strong wind blew on my face, and put some resistance to my advance. I liked it, it gave me a feeling of freedom, as if I was an intrepid falcon riding on the air currents towards the heights of the heavenly kingdoms.

I climbed a small hill on the side of the road; this one had no trees on top of it, just high and wild grass growing in all directions. I stood on the highest spot of the hill, opened my arms to the sides and faced the wind with my eyes closed. After I enjoyed the wind for a while, I decided to come up with a plan to begin my travel; I needed to reach Star City to find the NPC which could give me the special quest.

I sat down, pulled out the scroll with the quest info, but didn't get to re-read it.

-Millea? Hi~! How are you doing?- It was my best friend, Denna!

-Denna!- I growled in joy! 'Damn! Did I just_ growl_ Denna's name?'

-M-Millea? Is that you?-

-...- I didn't know if I should have answered. Denna is my best friend in RL, we tell each other everything, but she's pretty! Really really pretty. I looked down to my hands and chest under my cloak; and a weird feeling grew in my heart. I decided I didn't want to tell Denna what had happened. She would surely know at some point, I thought I'd tell her later. But not at that moment.

-Millea? What's wrong?-

-Did anything happen?-

-Don't make me worry like this!-

'I'm sorry, dear friend. I am not feeling exactly cheerful at the moment,' I thought. She continued to PM me for a while, but I didn't answer to any of her calls. 'I'll have to explain everything to her when I wake up'.

But the weird feeling didn't go away. It only grew stronger, and I wasn't in the mood for deep thinking either, so I postponed my travel for a while longer and put the scroll and my cloak back into my pouch.

In the end I spent most of the afternoon enjoying the wind atop of the hill.

The sun still didn't reach the horizon, I felt a bit hungry again. I stood up, stretched a little, and observed the nearby hunting grounds.

I spotted a nice mob to train on: the Flareleon, the chameleons of flames. I liked to practice on them when I was a frost mage. They are merely dog-sized level 5 monsters which usually wander alone, but jump quite high (much like a frog would) and have a mana-based attack; the Flaretongue, which worked as a whip made of flames. I was already used to their attack patterns.

I looked around for something to catch its attention. I picked up a pebble and sent it its way.

It hit the reptil on the head. It jumped towards me, and just when it opened its mouth to whip me with its tongue, I bellowed "Negate!"

The flaming chameleon seemed stunned, its whip hadn't appeared!

I, on the other hand, was overjoyed. Before it opened its mouth again, I used the chance to hit the Flareleon on the side with the magistick.

**Flareleon, -25 HP.**

It was lifted off the ground and fell on one side because of the impact. It stood up and changed color, from the flaring orange it was when it was healthy to the hill's dusk-sunlit green; a signal that made me understand it wanted to run away.

"Oh, no, you aren't going anywhere! Piercing Torch!" I had not enough mana to wait for another chance to use 'Negate', so I just finished it off by hitting it.

**Flareleon, -30 HP. Flareleon has died. Millea has gained XXXXX EXP points!**

"Grehgrehgreh..." I laughed (growled) a content laughter. I set off in search of more Flareleons to kill, and actually managed to gain one level! I was level 12 again. Negate is an ability which uses more than my current mana points, but because of my magistick, I could use it once (since it doubled my mana points, remember?). After killing the first reptil my mana dropped significantly, but I leveled up when I killed the second (just by using the stick as a baseball bat whenever it jumped, and thus gaining another skill, Raging Bat.)

When you level up, all of your HP and MP are reset to 100 percent. Now I could hunt down one or more reptils. And that's what I did.

My abilities upgraded like this: Negate reached level 3, and it used up 20 MP less than before. I still could use it only once, though! Raging Bat upgraded to level 3, too. It inflicted a bit more damage than before, the same as Piercing Torch, which reached level 4.

I took a rest to read my new abilities in detail.

**Abilities: Supreme Domina – Ability Level 1, can take control of any minion or invocation summoned by another player of lower level than the caster, will use up 100 MP per minute / Negate – Ability Level 3, can cancel attacks which consume mana from any NPC or player of lower level than the caster, will use up 430 MP / Corrupt - Ability Level 1, corrupts one mana consuming attack casted in a radium of 15 meters, will use up 40 MP / Dark Omen - Ability Level 1, will confirm the player's intuition of an incoming danger, will use up 5 MP and will give the player two extra seconds to react / Piercing Torch - Ability Level 4, physical piercing attack performed with a piercing weapon / Spawn - Ability Level 1, will provide life to any severed body part and allow them to join back together with the main body, unless burnt by fire based attacks / Raging Bat - Ability Level 3, physical hitting attack performed using a hard shaft. Will produce +10 HP damage if the target is hit whilst on the air.**

"..." There were a couple of thoughts running wild inside my head when I saw that system window. The most outstanding were:

1.- 'So If I suspect I'm in danger then I can get a confirmation 2 seconds before I'm attacked?'

2.-'What the hell? My body parts can have a life of their own?' *shrug* I looked at my left arm; even if it was convenient, the fact that your arms could have a life of their own was creepy to say least. 'What does fire have to do with this all?'

3.- 'Seems like I can continue to rely on magistick for killing monsters while I rise my magical abilities'.

4.- ''Negate' hasn't improved in power, but its cost has decreased. If I continue to level the ability up, maybe I'll be able to use it twice in a row quite soon.'

I wanted to try using Supreme Domina so badly, but that spell seemed to be designed to face other players instead of mobs. And about Corrupt... Yeah, I felt curious as hell. I figured the damage it could cause me would be lesser if my own level was low, so I set off to look for more Flareleons to kill.

I found one soon enough, killed it by hitting it (I got hit by his flaming tongue, though) and reached level 13.

"Oh, yes!"

Then came disgrace. I was so happy with this winning streak that I forgot my Luck stat. When the next reptil appeared, I hit it lightly to catch its attention and provoke it. It tried to use his whip to hit me, but before it could, I bellowed "Corrupt!"

A sudden explossion surrounded my vision, and I knew no more about myself for a while. When I came to be, I was lying on my back, and the smell of burnt flesh was strong in my nostrils. I tried to sit up, just to see I was missing my right arm. Well, that isn't quite right; it wasn't missing. My arm had been consumed by fire up to my elbow, and my elbow still had some smoke coming from it. I used my left arm, which was also burnt and in pain, but at least I could use it, to sit up.

"Oh, shit..."

My right leg was useless.

-o-

I sat there, waiting for my magistick to heal me up little by little. I tried to recall what had happened.

The whip of the Flareleon had turned into a giant snake made of flames, and exploded. I used both of my arms to protect my face, and rotated my body a little, covering my left side with my right side. Thus, my right leg was burnt to a crisp, my right arm was crippled, and my newbie clothes were in a precarious condition.

I wondered what had happened to the flareleon. I looked at where it should have been, but saw it laying a bit farther away. I wondered if it was still alive.

**Millea, +10 HP.**

I looked at my stats, and found out that I had almost died. My HP was now 15. So I survived with only 5 HP. I didn't know wether to call that lucky-ness or unlucky-ness.

-o-

When my HP was 45 (yup, three hours later. You wonder what I did during those hours? I thought about I was going to do next, and what I was going to tell my friends during the day. That kept me entertained for 2 hours and a half) I stood up, and approached the Flareleon. My leg still hurt, but I could walk.

The reptil was still alive, only 5 HP remaining. I hit it with my magistick.

**Flareleon has died! Millea has gained XXXXX EXP points! Millea has leveled up!**

"Ah!" My HP and MP were instantly restored, and I reached level 14! But I was still right-hand-less. Although I felt no more pain.

-o-

I proceeded to cook the Flareleon. Did I mention already I own a little cooking pot? No? Well, you never asked. Anyway, wathering wood, starting the fire, getting some water, skinning the thing, and cooking the reptil with only one hand is difficult. It's worse if your left hand isn't your dominant hand. But I got to do it. However, I didn't enjoy my meal very much, I was in a sour mode. The explosion had happened because I understimated my Luck. I understimated Tyche's dislike of me. I made a mental note not to let that happen again.

_Hurrr (sigh)_... And I thought I had smarted up since then...

-o-

The strong wind told me I was nearing Wind Town. The moon was visible at times from above the clouds, illuminating my path and then making me stop to reaccustom my eyes to darkness. I reflected as I advanced that it was best for me to stay in Wind Town during the nights of Second Life. That way I'd be able to take a nap on a bench in the square, unafraid of being attacked my a powerful mob or having an arm blown up by my own stupidity... At least during the night.

Before I reached said town, I heard a voice calling out.

"Hey there!"

I stopped walking and looked to my right; walking towards me was... You guessed it! It was Cutehottie. Ehehehe... He was smiling a _suave_ grin, coming my way at a cool pace.

'Gosh, if sexyness could kill...'

Some part of my drooling brain told my right hand, which should have been my free hand (my left was holding magistick), to wave at him.

"Wow, what happened to your arm?" His eyes went wide as he stopped his cool walk towards me.

I had raised my arm a bit, and the moon showed to him what had been concealed by darkness. "Oh..." Was all I managed to say.

He stared at my troubled face for a second, before he said, "Come, I invite you to a drink. You can tell me if you want to." He produced a liqueur bottle from his pouch and showed it to me, then stood by my side and signaled the path where I had come from. "There is a quiet clearing in the woods in that direction which is just perfect for drinking some especially made liqueur. I'm feeling a bit lonely, care to accompany me for a while?"

'Like HELL if I'd say no when he's giving me that kind of I'm-a-hurt-puppy-dog-who-yearns-for-a-pat-on-the-head smile!' *Hurrr* (sigh) "Yeah, I'll be going with you, but I don't promise I'll tell you anything. I'm feeling somewhat tired."

He grinned, and I almost got a nosebleed. "Hehe! That's just fine!"

We began our walk when the moon hid once more behind the grey cottoncandies. And he began to talk. He talked about the game's graphics, the movies that were released recently, the movies' industry, the music industry, his favorite music style, his grandmother's dancing abilities and her dog's bad manners. Yup, he likes to talk.

He kept going on and on about a lot of nonsense, even after we reached the clearing and we sat on a fallen tree trunk. This is where I almost got a heart attack; he wanted me to drink from the very bottle.

"N-n-n-n-n-o-nononono! Just what are you saying?!" I thought I was as red as a blushing ladybug.

"Oh? You are that kind of delicate people who can't drink from the same bottle as other people?"

'That's not the issue! But maybe I should just go with it, sigh! When will I have another chance to have an indirect kiss with such a hottie?' But it was a bit too late for that, he was already looking for something inside his pouch. This time he produced a huge tin mug, poured half of the bottle's content into it then passed it to me.

"Happy?" He flashed me a dazzling smile, and I had no more option than to agree.

*Hurrr* (sigh) "Happy." I smiled too.

We cheered and I raised the mug with my left hand. I noticed something strange as soon as I gulped the first mouthful; a tingling sensation was going through my whole body. I sent him an inquisitive glance, but he just smiled again and told me to continue drinking.

The liqueur was indeed especial. It improved my mood, and before I knew it I was chatting away with Cutehottie as if I too was born a chatterbox.

By the time I downed the last drop of liqueur in the mug, my right arm had was complete again! Even my black nails were there!

"Whoah! I-Is dis begause of de liguer?" I tried to look directly at him but to no avail; I didn't know which of the three heads he had was the real one.

"Ahahahahaha! Yeah! Hehehehe, it can restore not only HP and MP, but it restores a body to its original form... Although I'm a bit disappointed. You have your arm back but you are still a troll... I thought you might be cured with this..."

I gaped. 'He wanted to cure me? Awww, he's so fucking cuuuuute!' But now that I think of it, he must be a heavy drinker! I drink from time to time with my friends and I don't get drunk easily, but this liqueur had left me almost totally wasted and he didn't even looked a tiny bit tipsy!

But I didn't notice back then. But I remembered something else, "Hey yah, I wanna thang you fohr aaaall you'be done fohr me, but I don't know yur name! Whatcha called, Hottie?" Gaaaah! I can't believe I talked like that!

He giggled. "Why don't you take a guess?"

"How I'ma suppos'd to know?..." He was sitting happily on the tree trunk waiting for my response. 'Like a trained dog waiting for a reward.' "Pi pi." (Name for male Shar Peis) 'There. You got a dog name.'

"Nope!"

"...Mao mao." (Hairy) Another pet name. I didn't want to think too hard, it's not like I could really guess his name, could I?

"Nope! It's Xiao Bai." (Little White, for pets of white fur).

"..." 'So in the end it was really a dog's name!'

-o-

When the sun caressed my dark skin, I had my back against the tree trunk. I opened my eyes, and found myself in the clearing. I thought my head would be in pain when I remembered I had been drinking, but that wasn't the case. I lowered my eyes to stand up but froze in the spot.

Cutehottie (Xiao Bai) was sleeping with his head on my lap.

I didn't really have any reason to hurry up and leave, did I?

When he woke up, he thanked me for being such a nice pillow. I looked down to my sturdy hairy legs, then to his sincere smile. I knew then for sure, 'This guy is missing a brain.' Either that or he is a real dog wearing a Second Life helmet.

He treated me to breakfast. He took out a skin bottle full of water, and some biscuits which he had bought at the town, and we ate sitting on the fallen tree.

"As I was saying earlier, it is up to you," he said all of sudden.

I didn't know what he was talking about, so I had to ask him what he meant. I discovered then that I could speak to him normally. Oh, the miracles of alcohol.

He stared at me, raised an eyebrow, then chuckled lightly. "So you don't remember anything, huh? You don't remember anything at all?"

I panicked. What happened after I learned his name? Well, if he was still here I probably didn't do nor say anything too embarrassing.

"Sigh. Then I'll start all over. Whenever something bad happens, it's all up to you, the way you face it. After all, this is a game. I like this Second Life, because I don't take to heart the things I live in here. In this manner, everything just flows by and I join the flow only if I feel like it. You too only need to think of this all as a laughing matter. The real you is not a troll, is she? This is nothing more than a dream land, and while your dreams might be nightmares, then just laugh at them! Nothing can be so bad, and nothing in here is permanent. You can talk to me if you need support. I'm sure you'll get other people to support you too, even if they KOS you first! Ahahahaha."

My chest hurt a little at his words. I didn't fully understand what he meant until later, when I met FireFairy, DevilGirl, The Adult and SexyGuy, and I learned to share the tough stuff I've experienced as a joke to lighten my friends' mood. Also, I was seriously wondering just how much I had told Cutehottie the previous night. To be honest, I still have no idea.

-o-

"Thank you for everything, Cutehottie."

"!" 5 people were trying to dig a lethal hole in my brain with their stares. 'D-dang it! Did I just call him Cutehottie out loud?'

"Eh? What did you just call me?" He looked surprised, but not angry. Actually he looked quite amused by the nickname.

"N-never mind!"

"Hehe. Cute, eh? Well, that's a first." He scratched his cheek.

"? A first? But you're really cute." 'You are airheadedly cute, that is.' But I made sure NOT to say that aloud!

"Ohoho, don't say it too often else I might believe it! I'm often called hottie, bishie, sexy, handsome and all that sort of stuff, but cute? Hey, Cid, Milly just said I'm cute!" He turned around to face the only other guy in his team, Cid. He was tall, a tad taller than Cutehottie, and seemed like he wanted to kill me even more that the four girls standing by his side.

"...It's time we left, Bai."

"Awww, but I wanted-"

"Now." The guy spoke in a quiet tone, but the frown and the dead serious stare he directed towards Cutehottie were very convincing.

"Sigh. Sorry, Milly. I'd like to spend more time playing around with you but we need to go now..." He looked back at Cid, who was still frowning, and pouted. 'How come no one can see how cute he is? I mean, he's hot, too hot for anyone's health, but he's also quite cute...'

"It's fine, um, Xiao Bai." 'Why does this feel like I'm parting with a dog?' "Let's meet up some other time!"

"Heh! Yeah, let's meet up again!"

As him and his team walked away from Wind Town, he kept on turning around to smile at me and wave his hand as if he was going very very far away...

"Is it just me, or he just called me 'Milly'?"

-o-

Since then he calls me 'Milly'.

Anyway, I didn't met him for a while after that. But what he said to me made me understand that it wasn't necessary for 'unlucky' to mean 'disgraceful'.

From that day onwards, I _tried_ to laugh whenever I felt unlucky. I wasn't always succesful, but at least I tried.

(This doesn't count, though! How can I laugh when I might never see any of my comrades again? Damn my Luck!)

Chapter 2: 'A Dog Will Always Be Your Most Loyal Friend and Most Important Teacher', End.

-o-

-o-

Hey-hey! Me again. Yay! I have two followers and two reviews! That's a lot! Thaaaaaaank yoooouuuuu! Teehee~!

To deaththecripple: Millea is a very simple-minded person (her calling xiao bai 'airheaded' might be like the kettle calling the pot black...) And she is very easy to convice, thus, when someone is kind to her, she lets herself be drawn into the most stupid situations... She was convinced by kind Artie and Cutehottie and now she's stuck in a place she might not get out from! She's also very stubborn, lol. Maybe she's just like me.

I hope those pet names aren't wrong. I will use some RL names next chapter. I don't want to extend her RL situation for long, I just want to clarify the relationship with her friends, then we go on with the in-game story for a long while. This is necessary, because she herself is an airhead and I'll need her daily airheaded thoughts to influence her in-game self. (Idk if that made sense at all! XD)


	4. Chapter 3: Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own 1/2 Prince. All copyrights to Yu Wo.

Warning: this isn't proofread, just spell-checked. Beware: I like to come up with new words.

Leetle guide:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

-Talk through pm-

**System notice/System window**

"SOMEONE SCREAMING/RISING THEIR VOICE"

-o-

Chapter 3: Unknown.

I opened my eyes, then closed them again. The memory of a hot guy resting with his head on my lap made me blush and smile. "Hehehehe..."

But the alarm clock continued to ring.

Well, it wasn't ringing. It was playing one of ELECTRA's songs, 'Quit Lying.'

-o-

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. What I saw was a normal girl, maybe a bit too thin, wearing clothes which were not of any important brand. Typical black hair, typical dark eyes. Even if she was wearing some make-up, the girl looked 12 years old at most.

"..." I hated to look at my own reflection. I had been worried as hell because my breast hadn't grown properly, because I was too short in height, and you couldn't tell were my waist ended and my derriere began. I even got to think I was sick, that I had a congenital disease, or some hormonal disorder, but my mother kept on telling me that it wasn't like that.

I insisted on that topic until I saw a picture of my father's younger sister who died in an accident when she was young. Well, when she was 30. But she looked like she was 12.

Since then, I knew I was doomed.

-o-

I sent a message to Yuyu (Denna) for a get together later. I couldn't keep her worried, could I?

As I munched my breakfast, Wei, my 9 years old brother, came in.

"Hey, sis!"

"It's 'good morning', darling!" Mom reprimanded him.

"No matter! Hey, sis, I need to buy some stuff for the soccer club."

"Good morning, Chan Wei," said dad in a severe tone from across the table. "I think we've taught you some manners."

That is my family, the Chan family. Regular mom, regular dad, regular little brother, regular me. We've always lived in the same town and in the same house, my parents have had the same work for decades, and I've never transferred schools. I have no adopted siblings, we're not cursed nor in debt, none of us is sick, and we have no rich relatives who could suddenly pass away and inherit us a fortune.

Oh, I have an older sister, but she's not regular. She's an outstanding and beautiful young lady. She's working in the capital, although I'm not sure what's her job now. We rarely speak since she's always busy, and she comes home just twice a year. Did I mention she has a good figure? Damn you, genes, you have favored these siblings unequally! You could at least give me some intelligence points!

-o-

So, there I was, enjoying a cappuccino in a coffee shop on my own. Why, you ask? Well...

"Excuse me, miss, are you alone?" A handsome man asked me. He appeared to be in his thirties, but he was still quite handsome. "Where are your parents?" He inquired, genuinely worried.

"...I'm seventeen." I replied coldly. Seriously. I know I look like a 12 years old girl (and to some I look like I'm 10), but nope! I'm seventeen.

"...I'm a teacher, you can trust in me. Are you alone?" He made the movement to look for his teacher ID, but I stopped him.

"I'm serious, I'm seventeen. You don't have to worry about me." I was starting to get angry. "In fact, I'm here waiting for my boyfriend." I put on a smug expression. 'This will send him away'.

He lifted an eyebrow, and his face told me he didn't believe me one bit.

"Please, mister, my boyfriend might get jealous if he sees me talking to another-"

"Hey, sister! I'm back!" My evidently 9 years old brother Wei came running towards me, carrying some bags. "Did you wait for long?"

That. THAT awkward moment when your little brother embarrasses you to death. I'm sure you've felt it too, right? Even if you have no younger brother, then at least you may have a young cousin. Or a child neighbor. Or a best friend with a little brother. Or you've met a child on the street. Anyway, it seems children exist in order to embarrass us teens!

Mister Teacher seemed about to explode with laughter, and I wanted to jump into a hole connecting to the Earth's center SO BADLY...

"L-let's g-go, Wei!" I grabbed his hand and dashed away from the coffee shop.

"Hey, sis, slow down!"

I stopped in a corner, and stared at Wei. Wei had black hair, black eyes. He wasn't short for his age but not tall either. He wasn't cute, he wasn't good looking, but he wasn't ugly. 'My younger brother indeed. He's just regular', I thought.

So this pair of regular brothers had come to the shopping area of D city to buy the stuff Wei needed for the soccer club. He could have bought them online, but he wanted to feel the things with his own hands, so my parents forced me to come. This area was very crowded, hence it was dangerous for a 9 years old child to wander around here on his own. So, tadaaa! Conveniently, Wei had an older sister, Meng Hua, to take care of him and help him carry the bags. Never mind the fact that Meng Hua looked like a child herself, and was often thought to be a lost girl in every shop she entered. Nope, never mind, she was Wei's older sister, therefore here was Meng Hua, carrying some of Wei's bags while feeling utterly depressed.

"Wei... Why do you want to join the soccer club?" I couldn't help to ask.

"'Cause I like soccer, duh."

"...you know you'll never be a regular, right?"

"Yeah, I know. But I like soccer more than kung fu, tennis or baseball, swimming is out of the question, and I'm not smart enough for journalism, wei qi or the student council."

He didn't mention arts nor music. It's no wonder. Neither of us is talented for arts. Well, neither of us is talented in anything.

-o-

We walked through the advertise-filled streets towards our next destination: somewhere to have lunch. There was this superb place about the next corner. It wasn't cheap, but it was quite nice.

As we moved through the crowd, we saw some Second Life holograms here and there.

"Sigh... I want to play Second Life."

"I've told you before, keep playing Alfheim (1). The pain in Second Life may be just a thirty percent, but dying feels really disgusting."

"How many times have you died?"

"..."

"Oh."

Even now I think I understand why Second Life has an age restriction (2). Since you can only make one character, if Wei built his character today, he would forever look 9 years old within the game. Besides, Second Life and its 30 percent of pain is a brutal game. The pain changes your perspective of everything that happens. You can experience the feeling of getting burnt, getting a sprained ankle, getting poisoned, being pierced, being electrocuted, being cut, being blasted to pieces.

It's better for children to play painless games such as Alfheim.

The next advertisement I saw was one from Chanel. And it made me drool. Why? Because Chanel had recently released a new perfume fragrance, 'No. 241' (read as 'Two for One'), and the models were the ELECTRA duo!

There they were, Renshu (Zhang Renshu) and Qiu (Huang Qiu), the country's two top pop singers. The perfume's bottle was shaped as a woman's figure, and in the advertisement both Renshu and Qiu were surrounding a bottle as if it was a real woman, looking at it with desire. The promotional video for the 'No. 241' had been extremely successful, since most of the women in the country would die for being surrounded by both Renshu and Qiu... Although Qiu alone would be enough anyway! I've said it before, that Qiu from ELECTRA was the same as a god. He was simply perfect. Renshu was hot as well, of course, and hotter than most, but Qiu was in a league of his own.

Wei had to drag me away by force (for I was staring at Qiu's picture with hungry eyes, just as every other passerby females and some males), and we reached our destination.

-o-

We returned home, and I let myself fall atop of my bed. The time was 14:35, and I had to meet the guys at 17:15 (since Bo had piano lessons until 17:00).

I set my alarm to play another ELECTRA song at 16:45, and let myself take a little nap with my Second Life helmet on.

-o-

I was still in Wind Town when I woke up as Millea.

I pondered on what to do, and realized the best mobs for me to raise my level quickly were the Flareleons, as long as I didn't use 'Corrupt'.

I returned to the hunting grounds where those reptiles were common, and took down one using 'Negate' and then piercing through it with magistick, and took another one down using 'Raging Bat'.

I picked up one copper coin. Yay! Now I had two copper coins.

As I was looking for another Flareleon to beat, I saw a black thing in between two tree roots. I approached it with caution, wary that it might be some tiny dangerous mob. It was about the size of a curled cat - a black curled black. The thing didn't seem to realize I was there. I poked it with one of magistick's tips, but it only moved a little as a result of my 'poking' it.

"Could it be..."

*Wappa!* **Millea, -40 HP.**

I was slashed from behind by a whip - a hot whip. 'A Flareleon!' I tried to ignore the pain and turned around. The reptile was looking at me viciously, and had already unleashed another attack with his tongue. I raised magistick and his tongue encircled the staff and then pulled.

I refused to let go of magistick and began a pulling competition with the stupid lizard.

Of course I was stronger, but the thing kept on holding onto the staff!

We kept fighting in this manner for a short while, until I saw a huge water dragon... Coming directly at me!

"N-negate!"

**Not enough MP.**

'Damn!' I had figured it should be a magical attack, but I couldn't use 'Negate'! And the water dragon kept approaching. 3, 2, 1...

"C-corrupt!"

I closed my eyes as I roared the attack, then let go of magistick, which the Flareleon was still pulling and hence it hit the reptile on the face.

**Flareleon, -20 HP.**

I kept on waiting for the water to hit me... But It didn't happen. I opened one eye and saw an ice dragon just inches away from my face.

"Whoah!" I jumped backwards in fear, and heard a 'Wappa' sound, followed by an intense pain on the left side of my torso.

**Millea, -30 HP.**

I realized then that the dragon was actually really frozen, and that the stupid lizard was still alive, but my magickstick had rolled under the ice dragon. I dove to evade the next tongue attack, and began to run in search for some sort of tree branch I could use to kill the color-changing lizard when I heard another system notice.

**Flareleon, -80 HP. Flareleon has died. Kratos has gained XXXX EXP points!**

I stopped and turned around. The Flareleon was lying near the ice sculpture, with two arrows coming out from its back. I looked around just as someone spoke.

"Eh... Sorry, but you are a player, right?"

An elven archer advanced slowly towards me, leading other five people. He had an arrow ready to be shot, but he kept his bow aiming low.

'Of course I'm a player!' I wanted to shout, but I didn't, since I couldn't really say 'of course'. Sigh, I was once again mistaken with a mob.

I nodded in response, and growled something similar to a 'yes', then asked, "Were you the ones who sent the water dragon?"

They flinched when they heard me, and the archer turned to look at the team's mage, a thin human guy.

"I-it was me," the mage said."I'm sorry, I thought you were some sort of monster."

Somehow, the word 'monster' hurt me more than the word 'mob' would have. "S'okay, at least I didn't die," I replied. I looked at the ice dragon, then at magistick trapped under it. "Do you think you can help me retrieve my sti- my staff?"

The guy followed my line of vision and saw the trapped staff, then his eyes widened. He had recognized an 'excalibur'. He immediately chanted, "Dispel!" And the ice sculpture disappeared in the midst of a blue glow.

I advanced towards the stone stick and picked it up, then sighed. *Hurrr* my wounds hurt.

The archer, apparently the team leader, apologized once more, then asked their priest to heal me. The guy was of the angelic race, and approached me fearfully. When he was done chanting, my HP was fully recovered and my MP as well!

"Thank you, Angelguy!" I chirped (I growled). And I nicknamed him subconsciously.

"It's the least we can do, you were hurt because of Roran." He proceeded to send an annoyed glance to the mage.

One of the team's girls, apparently a thief, picked up the loot the Flareleon had left, then gave it to me.

"Here, since we killed your prey, then you should have this." There were 25 copper coins! That was more than I had gained on my own since I began playing! Since the damned reptile hadn't died by the hand of someone with a Luck level of -185 (it became a little better because of Cutehottie's kindness the previous day), it left behind a normal loot... "It also left this." She also handed me a belt, which seemed to give +5 HP.

Normally I'd refuse so much kindness, but I was in no position to refuse any help.

"Thank you so much." I felt like crying of happiness. Even if I was almost killed by a water dragon, even if my clothes are now totally torn, even if was whipped 3 times, I gained 25 copper coins! I couldn't hold back a wide smile.

**Millea has gained new ability - Positive Thinking.**

The team continued their way after I thanked them many times, and I decided I'd cook the damned reptile. I thought I had seen some thick tree branches which could serve as wood in my way there, so I intended to go back the way I had come from... But I saw a black thing from the corner of my eye.

"The black thing!"

I kneeled a little by the thing's side, and then it dawned on me... It was an egg. A big black egg.

-o-

After I ate, I stood up and attacked another lizard with magistick. There was something I wanted to check.

The Flareleon turned towards me, opened its mouth, and I bellowed "Corrupt!"

So there I was, sitting on a rock, sulking. Why? Because the spell had turned the flarewhip into a fireball which hit me in the stomach. I had fallen backwards, and the lizard wanted to jump onto me. I used my remaining strength to hit the thing with my staff, and then it run away. Some Flareleons are less brave than others. I survived with merely 10 HP.

The thing was, Corrupt had failed again, but it had worked just fine on the water dragon (I had confirmed with the mage that it was not him the one who turned the dragon to ice).

'Why is it that it fails with Flareleons, but it worked on the water dragon?' I had many theories, but they were just that, theories.

The Stone Torch had recovered some of my HP when the next Flareleon passed by. I threw a stone at it, it got angry, prepared to attack, I 'negated' its whip, and blahblah.

**Flareleon has died. Millea has reached Level 15! Negate reached Level 4. Piercing Torch reached Level 5.**

-o-

I turned off the alarm song, 'Sunset', and got ready to leave.

The ride in the public transport wasn't long. I got down in a bus station, walked for a bit, and reached the designated meeting place, Nian's apartment.

Nian's father was a divorced and workaholic who traveled a lot, so Nian had one large and expensive apartment in the middle of the city all for himself most of the time, which caused that the rest of us would invade his place quite often.

I guess I should introduce my friends now? After all this diary has no means of being printed in RL...

We are seven friends, who are more like brothers than friends. We've practically grown up together, and even when we are all really different from each other we get along as the best friends there could be.

My closest friends are Yuyu (Fan Biyu/Denna) and Sheep (He Xin You/Yue).

Yuyu is, as I mentioned earlier, very pretty, and she's also kind. Sheep (I began calling him that last year for he has a liking for younger guys and is a wolf dressed with a sheep's skin) is gay, but that hasn't changed his friendship with the other guys; they aren't to his liking.

The other girl is Honesty (Jen Zhilan/Ulrike). I call her that because she always says whatever may be on her mind, to the point she's blunt and even offensive. She is learning parkour.

That leaves three guys. Nian (Gao Nianzu/Tyr), the one with divorced parents, is very violent. Last year he almost went to prison because of a street fight. He even has a small gang, but he still hangs out with us most of the time, and he is loaded in money. He may be a brute, but he's a good guy.

Next are Hyper (Sun Tao) and Bo (Li Bohai). Hyper is, you know, the kind of guy who's never still. He's in the school's basketball team, and is always doing some sort of sport. And Bo, Bo is Hyper and Nian's polar opposite. He likes music and reading, and his dream is to be this age's Beethoven. Never mind the fact he's not really talented for piano, he thinks that he can reach perfection through practice.

And as to why this bunch of different people gets along well with each other, well, that's because we are all idiots.

-o-

When I reached Nian's place, Honesty and Hyper were already there. Honesty was teaching them some parkour in the wide living room.

"Oh, it's Mengmeng!" Yep, they call me Mengmeng.

"Hi, guys!"

"Mengmeng! Yuyu told us there was something wrong with you last night!" Hyper said as he put an arm around my neck in a brotherly manner.

Honesty stopped her teachings to look at me, and Nian had no more choice but to look my way as well.

"Yeah, there's something wrong with my Second Life helmet."

Lame lie is lame.

-o-

When everyone arrived, Bo being the last, I told them my character had been acting strangely, and that I had been experiencing some trouble with my helmet. I had contacted a mod, and they'd told me I should send them my helmet for a revision.

Honesty laughed, Yuyu looked a bit worried, and the guys just looked a bit sad, but after a while we resumed our regular activities: talk about idiotic stuff.

-o-

We all began playing SL as many other games before this one. When we played The World, both me (Dreamer) and Yuyu (Denna) were Healers, Bo (Beethoven) was an archer, Honesty (Ulrike) was a thief, Sheep (Yue) was a mage, and Hyper (Hyper) and Nian (Tyr) were warriors.

Those were our classes in EVERY game we played, and those were our nicknames in EVERY game we played.

When SL came out, we didn't want to play it right away because our 7-person team was doing really well in The World, but suddenly most of The World's players migrated to SL, and we had no more choice but to follow. However, before we got to begin playing, Sheep read on the internet that valid teams in SL had only 6 players.

We didn't know what to do.

-o-

In the end, Hyper got an idea; we were going to be playing separately. Each strong player (Sheep, Hyper, Tyr and Ulrike) would be born in a different Continent, and the weakest (Denna, Beethoven and me) would be born in the Central Continent, but would choose different races so we would be born apart from each other.

From there, our main objective would be to reach Sun City, and gather over there. If in the way there any of us made new friends and wished to join other team, we were all free to do so, but the first 6 which reached the designated city would conform the team.

It was a race.

-o-

At some point I realized I was well behind the others. My level raised too slowly! I was just level ten when the others were level 25 already. I chose not to be a priestess, but it was hell to get used to fight as a mage, and to fight on my own. In the other games I was never alone. My comrades were the ones who killed the mobs, I merely supported them. Now I had to kill monsters on my own in order to level up.

I also changed my name. Why? I'm not sure. I felt like I didn't want to be 'Dreamer' anymore.

-o-

Back to the meeting, our conversation topic changed quickly to the end of the summer break and the beginning of the new school term.

"Aaaah... I'm feeling nostalgic! How I want to see Lai Gen!" Lamented Yuyu (Denna).

"Sigh... Yes! The days I can't see him are way less bright than those illuminated by his presence!" I lamented too.

"And when he smiles, you feel like life is really worth living!" Added Sheep.

"Sigh..." And the three of us sighed.

"Xin You (Sheep), are you also into Lai Gen?" Asked Nian (Tyr), frowning.

"To be honest," began Sheep, "I wasn't interested in him in the slightest (he's not my type), but since Mengmeng and Yuyu talk about him all day I somehow got dragged into it..."

I pointed at Sheep. "You! Don't you dare making our Lai Gen become gay, you hear me?"

"Calm down, Mengmeng, I just like to watch him from afar!"

Lai Gen is the name of the guy I like. Nope, we're not childhood friends. Nope, I've never bumped into him when turning around a corner. Nope, I've never talked to him, and I doubt he knows I exist. It happened like this:

We entered high school (me and the other 6), and we were all placed in the same class. Soon afterwards, the rumor of an extremely good looking first year was spread. It was Lai Gen.

He was kind, attentive, charming, smart, good at sports, at arts, at science, at technology, and he was really easy-going. Soon, half of the girls in the school (and some guys) wanted him as boyfriend. Including Yuyu (Denna) and me.

But he got a girlfriend before any of us could react. It seems he fell in love at first sight, same as her, and they became an item within 3 weeks since the school had started.

She was beautiful, one of the prettiest girls in the school. But no girl could hate her, she was not only kind, but also very smart. Like a kind older sister, she helped those who needed help, but knew right away when someone had ill intentions towards her.

They have been a couple for a long time now. No one dares to come in between them, even if both have lots of admirers. That's my sad love story. I'm in love with a guy which doesn't know I exist.

-o-

The topic changed then to ELECTRA and their new single. Nian (Tyr) was disgusted by the topic and turned on the flat's music system, playing some heavy rock music I hadn't heard before. Bo (Beethoven) protested, so Nian changed the music to some epic rock music which Bo liked. See? Nian's a good guy.

Hyper and Sheep (Yue) liked ELECTRA, so we had fun talking for a while. Honesty didn't join the topic, she prefered hip-hop, although I've seen her many times drooling for Qiu, the god.

-o-

We said our farewells later, and I sighed several times as I returned home.

I didn't know if what I chose to do was a smart thing. I lied to my friends, to my brothers.

From then onwards, I told them I had chosen to quit SL, even when 'my helmet had been repaired', since I got tired of the pain (the pain level in The World was 20 percent). They all made sad faces (Nian/Tyr included), and offered to migrate to some game without pain. I refused, and said that maybe it was just that I was growing tired of games - another lie. I see now that I'm addicted to this Second Life of mine, even if look like a troll.

I'm not a troll. I'm myself, and I'm even stronger than I always believed. It's just... How I wish I was stronger still, so I could kill all these mobs and reach the tower to free SexyGuy from being MPK'd to level one! Just that! Just to save him! I swear I'd quit this game afterwards!

Maybe I need help from my friends after all? What would happen if I called Yuyu (Denna) tomorrow, and told her the truth? That I've secretly played SL for months, without telling them anything? And worse still, if she asked me why... How do I tell her that I don't want to live in her shadow anymore? It's not like she's at fault for anything!

...

Great, now I'm depressed.

Chapter 3: 'Lying to Your Friends May Seem Like a Good Idea But It Isn't a Very Smart Thing to Do', End.

-o-

-o-

(1) Any SAO fans out there? XD Alfheim is supposed to be a painless game, and thus it'd be more suited for children than Second Life. Besides, you can create more than one avatar if you wish! Which is impossible in SL. (Let's imagine Alfheim existed in the Half Prince world, but about 80 years in the future of kirito and co.!)

(2) So far, I don't know of any children playing SL, so yeah, I just made up an age restriction. As far as I know, Doll is the youngest character, but I don't know her age (maybe she's the same age as a certain 17 yo highschooler, or maybe younger, but I'm sure she is at least a teenager).

(3) I'll keep on creating random villages along the way... Lalala.

Hope this chapter wasn't too boring...


	5. Chapter 4: Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own 1/2 Prince. All copyrights to Yu Wo.

Warning: this isn't proofread, NOR spell-checked. Beware: I like to come up with new words.

Leetle guide:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

-Talk through pm-

**System notice/System window**

"SOMEONE SCREAMING/RISING THEIR VOICE"

-o-

Chapter 4: Unknown.

I looked down at my hands; grey, wrinkly, hairy, ugly. Yup, I was in-game.

I looked at my surroundings. I was still in the woods near Wind Town, and dusk was starting to show its colors through the darkening clouds.

I decided I could level up a little longer in this area before departing, but first I needed new clothes. This newbie outfit was burnt all over, its durability had decreased until it was more appropiate to call it a rag than an outfit. If I had a beautiful figure then I'd feel very ashamed of walking around with clothes in such a state, but actually, these clothes looked better on me when torn than when they looked like new. To the eyes of any other player I'd look like a regular troll instead of a steroid consuming transvestite.

As I advanced through the woods, I reached a huge clearing in which I hadn't been before. My travel until there had been very peaceful, so I suspected something may happen soon. I readied my staff in case something may attack and kept advancing, but things went on normally until I reached the middle of the clearing.

*Tumtumtoooom*

"!" I looked everywhere desperately, looking for the source of my next disgrace. Of course, I didn't look upwards!

I was hit by a powerful and painful bolt of energy. My mind couldn't really understand what was happening, all I could register was that the pain coursed through my whole body, running in my very nerves and veins, and then left my body through the pores of my skin. It only lasted a few seconds before it was over, but to me it was a small eternity. I departed from the woods turned into a pillar of light at the same time as a roar resounded in the skies.

That was the first time I was struck by lightening. Yup, just the first. Well, at least I didn't have to walk all the way to Wind Town...

After vomiting a bit of Flareleon meat in an outside corner of the rebirth point, I raised my eyes to glare at the dark storming skies. The wind was messing with the hair and clothes of every player that dared to stay in the streets as sudden flashes of light startled the shop-tending NPCs even before the clap of the thunders could be heard.

*Huurrrr* (Sigh)

I reached the shop in which I'd be able to buy some new clothes, and somehow I wasn't too surprised when the tending NPC nearly screamed for help when he saw me.

I recounted my money, I had 27 copper coins. And I had to use them wisely. Since the storm and the wind were growing stronger and stronger I wasn't really in a hurry to leave the shop, so I spent a long time admiring the expensive and cute dresses, skirts, corsets, and hair accesories which could cost a fortune (and which would look horrible on the current me).

Once I got bored I went to the pitifully cheap clothing section. After looking here and there I found a big lilac sleeve-less shirt (10 copper coins), and some blue pants that could look like blue jeans (8 copper coins). I remembered the (pitiful) loot the Flareleon killed by the random team had left: a (pitiful) belt.

Once I finished with this, I wanted to stay for a while longer but the NPC clerk shooed me out so he could close the shop for the day.

The night was dark and the storm was horrible. I spent the hours of darkness in a small alley in between two shops. I was dying of hunger, but my remaining 9 copper coins didn't allow me to buy anything for eating even if the shops had been open.

Dawn arrived at some point, but the sky was still dark and thunderous. And I needed to hunt. Well, I couldn't really stay in there forever untill I died of hunger, right?

The wind was stronger in the big avenue that was Wind Town's main street. As I approached the village's borders, the wind blew harder and harder.

I wasn't the only player that was leaving the town; about 70 other people were making their way out of the village. Yep, gamers were ones that loved challenges. The good thing was that everybody was too concerned about themselves to point or stare at me, that, or they were used to me already.

Now I think of it, I should have looked back at least once, but I didn't. When I left, I somehow believed I'd return to Wind Town. But I've never been there again.

-o-

The large group of people were probably heading to different training grounds. Some teams began going in other directions until only 20 people remained in the biggest group. I followed this main group out of apathy. I still felt that my brain had been fried.

They were chatting away in loud voices in order to be heard above the wind's roars and the claps of thunders, but they continued to advance and then entered a very eerie forest.

I stopped in my tracks right there. Somehow I didn't want to enter such a creepy place. How should I say this? The reason I always choose support classes is because I'm not brave. Sure, I can kill things now, but that doesn't mean I've become a brave person! I still fear the dark shadows under my bed or the inside of my closet (when the power is off). The reason I'm not really scared of these monsters in front of me is because I know they are just 3D pixels in a Second Reality, and most of them resemble some kind of beast, but I seriously dislike any sort of undead!

Whilst I was there doubting what to do, the 20 or so players went deep into the forest.

"...Grraaah (Baaah), I might aswell just go. After all, the worst than can happen is that I die again..."

I held my staff firmly and began walking amongst those eerily shaped trees. The sky was still grey because of the storm, and the wind moved the tree branches and even the tree trunks in sudden and odd ways that resembled some sort of monster that could jump atop of me at any moment!

I began to feel extremely scared. The overall darkness was filling my head with weird ideas of what may want to attack me, the whistling wind seemed to mock me and from time to time my cloak got entangled with some sort of eerie vine. So, I took a very brave desicion.

I turned to leave.

But, you know, my Luck stat is negative.

As I tried to recall which way I had come from, I realised I was lost. I growled in frustration and picked a random direction, then began heading that way. The ground was very irregular everywhere, making it hard to advance, so I didn't think too much of it when my left foot got caught in the mud. I tried to place my right foot firmly in the ground, pulled the left out, but then I realised my right foot was caught in the mud now...

I felt quite stupid for a moment there. One foot dangling in the air covered in dirt, and the other caught in the mud up to the knee...

"...Hold on a second! I am sinking!" I looked around in panic. I was sinking! I didn't know what to do. I glanced backwards and tried to turn around to reach the firm soil (since I realised this was some sort of LARGE quicksand lagoon) but it wasn't a good idea; I lost my balance when turning and fell backwards into the quicksand. I struggled and struggled and tried to stand up but to no avail; the quicksand soon covered me up to the neck. I thought about screaming for help, but the last time I did so my head was cut off... So I considered my options. 1.- to die by drowning in the quicksand. 2.- to yell for help and possibly die because of my appearance.

"If I choose number 2, then the ones who kill me may later give me some sort of compensation for killing me..."

I was about to yell for help (the quicksand reached my chin) when I heard voices.

"...treri jumped off the floor when he saw her! Ahahaha..." That was followed by some other people laughing, but I couldn't see anyone from where I was.

"RHEEEEEEEEELP!" (Help.) My roar resounded in the forest. The wind had calmed down without me realising and my roar sounded like a wounded giant bear's shout more than a sinking troll's...

But people came running in my direction anyway. It was a team of 5 people, with their weapons ready and severe faces which turned to confounded frowns when they saw my head apparently laying without a body on the ground.

"Rhelp! Quighsanz!" Since my mouth was about to be covered too, I once more asked for help, but some mud got into my mouth.

I was pulled out in a... Somewhat ungraceful manner. Since the only part of me that was on the surface was my head, the group's thief took out a rope and, instead of throwing one end towards me and telling me to hold onto it, he made a loop in said end, then used it to grab one of my horns with it. YES, my HORN. He proceeded to pull me out as if he was pulling a cow. Two more people helped him to pull.

Soon afterwards I was lying in solid ground, panting like mad and covered in dirt, but I was alive. There were 5 people looking at me. Three looked very amused (and tired, for it was them the ones who pulled me out), the fourth stared at me as if I was the most horrid thing she'd ever seen, and the fifth... The fifth was Jarlaxle, the arrogant brat who had dared to insult me in Wind Town the first time I died as a troll. He looked my way and snickered with an unpleasant look in his eyes.

Long story short (because this was yet another unfortunate event and Jarlaxle must be wanting to chop me to pieces) this people were Jarlaxle's team, composed by a male beast warrior (Aldebaran), a human necromancer (Veddhy), a female angelic mage (Monica) and her brother, a demon thief (Entreri). They told me later they had two other team members, but they left since she never seemed to agree with Jarlaxle. I wondered if one of them was Azalea.

The mage, Monica, disliked me greatly. She hadn't helped to pull me out of the quicksand at all, and when the other three guys offered me to join their team momentarily in order to leave the forest, she openly opposed the idea.

Jarlaxle said he didn't give a damn about anything.

The guys talked to me as if they'd known me forever, while the arrogant brat kept on sending me mocking grins and I sent him hateful glances in return, and the mage girl tried to stay as far away from me as possible.

As I talked with the necromancer I got to know that the area was a recently discovered training ground, in which compasses didn't work, nor did maps, hence there were more chances of exiting the forest in large exploration groups than in smaller groups. As we walked my stomach protested because of me neglecting it. The beastman warrior offered me food which I couldn't refuse, and only then I noticed the storm seemed to have passed completely. And the forest wasn't as eerie as before, when I was alone.

We walked around randomly. From time to time weak mobs jumped out to attack us, but Jarlaxle used his battle hammer to smash them before anything serious happened.

Until it happened.

We reached the base of a small cliff, and we sat down to rest. A small stream of water run down from the cliff's top, and the group used it to fill their wineskins, and when they asked for mine and I told them I had none the thief gifted me his, saying he could share with his sister (though his naughty sister didn't look very happy at the idea).

Then they began taking some snacks out. 'These people are really well prepared for hunting expeditions.' Of course the kind guys shared with me, despite the girl's hateful stares and Jarlaxle's permanent mocking attitude.

As we ate, I got to know why they had invited me to join their group; they wanted to know it it was true that I was cursed. They had heard the rumors in Wind Town and they were dying out of curiosity. 'So they invited me just to make me tell them the truth!' I felt somewhat dissapointed. 'Well, what was I expecting from the friends of that arrogant bastard and that ugly princess?' I thought, refering to Jarlaxle and the hateful mage girl.

*Hurrrr* (Sigh). I was inwardly fighting with myself about whether to tell them or not, when a giant flaming boulder fell from the sky and impacted a nearby tree, scattering small wooden flaming pieces all over the place. We all jumped to the ground and covered our heads with our hands, until we heard a yell of pain; the main tree trunk had fallen atop the necromancer, and left him trapped underneath. Everyone stood up and while the arrogant bastard and the thief rose their weapons and looked up towards the cliff's top, me, the mage girl and the wolfman tried to get the necromancer out, but it didn't work, and we didn't have time, something huge had appeared on the cliff!

Entreri, the thief, ordered the necromancer to heal himself with potions (even if he remained trapped) and to support us from the back, while the rest of us would protect him against that monster.

A fine plan, if not for the fact the accursed me was there.

"Kehkehkehkeh" The monster let out an evil laugh, and I finally looked upwards.

There it was, surrounded by flames, a three meters tall skeleton with some meat still attached to its bones, holding a long ghostly sword in its right hand. Its eyes were two dark holes and its whole presence emitted a heavy red and evil aura; above its head, a crown, and above the crown, the name of the monster danced amidst the sea of flames that were expelled from the creature's body.

**Flaming Skeleton King **

**-Level 55-**

Saying that the level-14-me jumped forward and bravely fought until death would be more than a lie! I was rooted to the spot, trembling all over in fear, and if Second Life's great patch had been installed at the time I'd most probably peed my pants. That was the biggest ghost I've ever seen! I was so, SO scared I wanted to turn around and leave, but I couldn't leave the people who helped me behind just like that, could I?

Well, I could have done so, and honestly, I probably should have!

"Oh, shit..." I heard the thief murmuring to himself.

"D-d-d-do y-you think y-you can take it d-down?" I asked the thief from where I was, wanting to know if we had a chance. But both Entreri, the thief, and Jarlaxle turned to stare at me with a helpless look in their eyes.

"I'm level 34, and Jar' here is level 36." The thief said, and both of them glanced at the ghost king once more before hopelessly reaffirming their hold on their weapons (Entreri wielded a rapier and a dagger).

I gaped. 'That thing is about 20 levels stronger than the strongest of the group, and 40 levels stronger than me?' But other than thinking about that, I had no time to flee! The ghost king jumped all the way down and landed near the poor necromancer Veddhy, then swung the sword it held on its right hand and hit the beastman with it, cutting him in half, then using the return swing to hit me and the annoying princess with the dull side of the sword, sending us flying into some trees as Aldebaran's conciousness flew towards the cloudy sky above the trees.

**Aldebaran, -450 HP. Aldebaran has died. Monica, -60 HP. Millea, -60 HP.**

We were lucky that the return swing was a weak attack! But it still hurt a lot.

Jarlaxle and Entreri dashed towards the Flaming Skeleton King at the time the trapped necromancer summoned some minions to help them in their attack. To everyone's horror, the ghost king was fast, and it held his ground perfectly against the two men and the five summoned skeletons.

"Mwahahahahaha!" It laughed your typical evil laughter right before it snapped its left hand's bony fingers. Nothing happened right away but a scream coming from the annoying princess made us realise that something was sprouting from the ground!

Skeletons had begun to rise from the forest's soil. Three, five, ten, twelve, and maybe more Flaming Skeletons were beginning to crawl before attempting to stand up. The annoying princess began to scream in an annoyingly high pitch (needless to say I was screaming in an annoyingly deep growl, but let's ignore that unimportant fact...)

The guys' fight became more terrible as the huge skeleton seemed to face the fight seriously and attacked with more strength, cutting down some of Veddhy's skeletons and inflicting several wounds in the two fighting men. Veddhy summoned more minions just in time for them, because the newly summoned skeletons joined the fray just as six Flaming Skeletons attempted to attack Entreri and Jarlaxle.

On the other hand, about seven Flaming Skeletons surrounded me and the princess. I was very busy trembling in fear when the skeleton which was closest to us was sent flying backwards by a bolt of energy; the annoying princess used a small thunder to push him backwards but it didn't do any damage to it. She continued to cast this small spell, Piercing Bolt, once and again and again, pushing the flaming ghost backwards but not causing them any real damage.

I deduced her level should be very low! Seeing her acting brave also gave me courage, so I rose my staff and began hitting the closest ghost while I bellowed 'Piercing Torch' or 'Raging Bat', which of course didn't cause them any substancial damage either.

I figured then that these Flaming Skeletons were merely minions of the huge king, so I bellowed "Supreme Domina!"

**Ding! No suitable target to perform the attack.**

"Damn it!" The stupid spell only worked on players or NPCs weaker than me!

Since my stamina was terribly low and I wasn't a warrior, I was already about to die from exhaustion. My HP was about to reach zero at any moment, and I guessed it was the same for everyone else, but they all kept on fighting. Just when I was going to let myself die, some arrows began to fall on the skeletons we were fighting, and then some energy spheres hit the ghost king on the back; other players had joined the fight!

The Flaming Skeletons surrounding me and the mage girl turned around and attacked the newcomers, who were about 6 people. With this, the mage girl quickly took out some potions and threw a health one to me, then she threw a few mana potions at the necromancer's hand reach, and she gulped down some herself. Once both hers and the necromancer's mana was replenished, they resumed chanting incantations. She released bolt after bolt of lightening towards the Flaming Skeletons which hindered Jarlaxle and Entreri, at the time that Veddhy summoned more minions. The fight on the other side was going well, the newcommers had taken down most of the Flaming Skeletons and should have been able to come in to aid our side's fight, when the ghost king snapped its left hand's fingers again.

The flaring undead that rose from the ground this time did so fater than the others, and at first glance they should be about 20.

We all paled.

The annoying mage then looked at me and bellowed, "DO SOMETHING ALREADY, YOU FREAK!"

I panicked; there was nothing I could do, other than Corrupt!

And so, driven by desperation, the moment the mage bitc- girl shouted "Piercing Bolt!" I roared "CORRUPT!"

And hell broke loose.

The earlier inoffensive bolt of energy became a BIG stream of energy, similar to a thunder, which sent smaller energy bolts into every direction. The main energy stream hit the ghost king, which was fried to a crisp amidst a dazzling flash of light. The smaller bolts hit every player and skeleton in the area, friends and foes alike, and also fried them to crisps. The light was so strong that I had to close my eyes. When I opened them again, I was in a completely burnt and deserted patch of forest.

**Millea has defeated Flaming Skeleton King! Millea has gained XXXXXXX EXP points! Millea has leveled up! Millea, Fame -500.**

"..."

-o-

I picked up the loot all of the skeletons dropped, which to my surprise was quite big: 3 gold coins, 157 silver coins and 61 copper coins, some potions and cheap jewels and weapons plus some random items which I later sold, and sat down on a burnt tree trunk; the tree trunk that had trapped the necromancer earlier.

I felt like crying. These people had fought until the very end, and might even had won, who knew? But I had caused them to die. 'Damn, I killed 10 people!' More over, if thought carefully, the fact that we met the Flaming Skeleton King may be my fault too, since those kind of events are triggered by one's low or high Luck stat... I mean, I've met several kinds of mob kings so far, included all kinds of slime kings. Yeah, slime kings.

Thinking about the stupid Luck stat reminded me of some things that I had been told before, by both Artie and Cutehottie: try to enjoy the game, and have a positive thinking.

Well, I don't particularly enjoy being covered in mud in an eerie forest after killing the people who rescued me, fed me, and gifted me a potion and a wineskin, but there were some good points about this all: I gained lots of money, a few cheap weapons I could use, potions, and I leveled up. With this, I wouldn't have to work for a month in order to be able to travel to Star City, I could depart right away!

**Positive Thinking has reached level 2.**

"..."

That was how I decided never to return to Wind Town! If I returned, I was quite positive Jarlaxle was going to smash my brain to a goo-ish green pulp.

-o-

I tried to leave the forest afterwards, but after going here and there for a while, killing a few swamp spiders, stumbling with vines, stepping into another quicksand lagoon (I managed to pull my foot out fast enough that time!), and getting chased by a level 30 chimera wolf (I escaped it by climbing onto a tree and hitting it when it flew towards me), the darkness was becoming heavier!

Amongst the loot the skeletons left behind there were a few bows and arrows. I had never practiced with such things before, but I tried to use them for a pitiful attempt at hunting swamp bunnies. In the end I ate a stupid frog which jumped to my face at some point, and which died when I hit it on midair with magistick.

Before it was completely dark I stumbled into another group of people, and these people knew me aswell, for they were the ones that had left the town with me that morning. They kindly invited me to join and try to find the exit. I was about to refuse in fear I killed them all again, but accepted anyway; if I relied only on luck to get out, I might wander in there forever.

To be honest, I was better in there than in here.

Anyway, it was well into the night when we managed to leave the forest without any important issues (I reeked like hell because of a brief meeting with a skunk and I got a stomach ache because a girl fed me poisonous mushrooms by mistake, but that's unimportant) and we reached a road. One of them took out a map and we discovered we were well away from Wind Town (thank the gods), and the nearest town was Rain Town.

We camped out there in the road, taking turns to be on guard, and when dawn arrived I left for Rain Town to get information on how to get to Star City, while most people decided they wanted to return to Wind Town or go to another training town.

After walking for a while, my alarm song rang in my head, with Renshu and Qiu singing 'Still Waiting For You' within my head.

-o-

Just for the record, my stats were improved when the Flaming Skeleton King died: I rose five levels and became level 19 (since I killed not only a mob boss but also its minions and several players), Corrupt reached level 3 in one go and its radius rose to 17 meters, Piercing Torch reached level 7 and Raging Bat reached level 6.

And I studied Positive Thinking (now level 2) before logging out; if I gained something, anything, from any bad situation, then I gained +1 Luck point. It was useless back then, but it improved a little afterwards.

My health was 160 (so pitiful for a level 19 player), my mana was of 550 (now I could use Negate twice in a row) and my Luck stat at this point was -215. It seems the thunder, the quicksand, and the 'Corrupt' spell managed to drop my luck somehow...

Chapter 4: 'Accidental Inheritance Which I Don't Intend To Return', End.

-o-

-o-

Hehehehehe, I made Entreri and Jarlaxle to fight side to side... XD did I mention I was reading the Forgotten Realms saga? No? Well, I'm still missing some books, so please don't spoil me~

Uh... I'll keep on taking (*coughcoughstealingcoughcough *) names from some books/manga I've read, but my character and the original character will probably have nothing in common.

Thank you for reading so far!

Idiotic fact: it was thundering outside as I wrote this chapter!

PD: she will be meeting her first teammate next chapter~


	6. Chapter 5: Unknown

Disclaimer: I do not own 1/2 Prince. All copyrights to Yu Wo.

Warning: this isn't proofread, just spell-checked. This chapter might be a little... **Disgusting** Beware: I like to come up with new words.

Leetle guide:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

-Talk through pm-

**System notice/System window**

"SOMEONE SCREAMING/RISING THEIR VOICE"

-o-

Those were the days I wandered as a lonely troll. But the best days I've lived in this Second Life began when I reached Rain Town.

Chapter 5: Unknown.

It had been a long travel. I can't really measure distances properly, I'm bad at telling whether a house is 3 or 15 meters away from me, and it's worse considering the fact I got a bit lost in my way there (I walked away from the road in order to hunt something, but got hunted down by a dragon. I hid in a narrow crack in the side of a mountain for two days while eating only moss until some passerby players distracted the dragon. I run for my life then. They probably managed to kill the dragon because it didn't chase after me; I'm quite sure my Luck stat would immediately attract any dangerous mob to me as bears to honey!), but I managed to get there alive, without dying once! Meaning I was still level 19, yay!

As you can guess, the weather was rainy when I went through the gates. And of course, several players turned to look and aim their weapons at me, so I had to raise my staff and roar "I am a player! I am a player!" as soon as I could... Not even my cloak could hide my weird appearance completely. Besides, the 'arms' on my back gave my hunched and cloaked figure a strange form.

Many eyes looked at me warily but I decided not to mind them. I walked around looking for a canteen or some place to eat and sort out which things I wanted to sell and buy, when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

The person was taller than me so I had to look upwards and lift my hood a little in order to see the person's face. When I did so, he seemed disgusted by seeing me. 'It's not like I can blame him, I'm also disgusted by this face...'

"S-sorry, sir, but are you interested in participating in the eating contest?" Said the guy, who seemed to be an elf archer.

I lifted an eyebrow. "Hurrr (sigh), I'm a girl."

He made an even more disgusted face. 'Oh, forget what I said, now I want to punch that face of yours!'

"Eh... W-well then, miss, would you want to participate in the eating contest?" He insisted, although he seemed somewhat nervous.

"I'm not good at eating," I retorted.

"It's not necessary for you to win, you see, one of our contestants ate too much just now and now can't compete! The contest will start in 10 minutes and we need to get someone to replace him or we will have an odd number of people."

I frowned a little in thought. "Then let one guy win by default?"

"No way! Then he will have an emptier stomach than the rest of the participants, and thus will have the advantage!"

"...then ask someone else." I tried to continue my way but was stopped by his hand in front of my face.

"Please! We've already asked everyone in the town but all of them have refused!"

"All of them?" He nodded. I thought about it for a moment, then I got an idea (as I said, I get good ideas from time to time...) "I'll do it if you buy me enough provisions to reach Star City."

"W-What!? But most people have to pay 5 gold coins in order to participate, but you want to be PAID for competing?"

"It's not like I'm really interested in participating nor do I think I'll win, but YOU are the one who NEEDS me to compete. I don't really need expensive food; the cheapest will do if it's enough for me to reach Star City."

He furrowed his brow and directed me a glance that said 'You despicable monster...' But he nodded and then said 'Come', leading the way in a hurry to a certain building on the east side of the village.

As we approached, the guy, who was named Regulus, explained the rules of the event: the first round was based on speed, the contestant who ate a certain number of dishes faster than the other would win the round. The second round was based on 'guts', whatever that was supposed to mean. The third round consisted in drinking an ultra disgusting juice, and the fourth round was the final eating contest: simply eat more than your opponent.

I sweatdropped. 'Like hell I can win this contest when I'm often told my canary eats more than I do, and considering my Luck...' But I wasn't really aware of a tiny small little detail.

-o-

A few minutes later I was sitting across of a big human guy. I was sure that the guy should be ugly and fat in real life, but this was Second Life, and you very seldom meet people who look ugly (you better not be thinking something along the lines of 'such as yourself?') I couldn't tell his class, but he was a big human with a sturdy appearance.

He looked like he wanted to kill me, though, so I covered my eyes with my hood. The rain continued to fall as the crowd cheered in the last 30 seconds remaining for the contest to begin. In front of me there were thirty apples, three whole lemon pies, four bowls of rice, five large pizzas seasoned with extra tabasco and two boiled crabs, plus a jar of water.

As I watched this display of gluttony I actually felt rather hungry...

*Riiiing* "Begin!"

I opened my mouth as wide as it'd go and went for the pies. The deal with Regulus was to keep on eating, even if very slowly, until Mr. Sturdy finished his 'meal' and thus won having eating the same amount of food as the other contestants who passed to second round. But as soon as I tasted the first bite of pie, I felt I was in heaven. It was delicious! The most delicious thing I'd tasted in Second Life! More delicious than the meal than Cutehottie invited me to!

As I salivated, I swallowed that piece of pie in an instant, then grabbed another, and another, and another until the whole pie was gone. I was startled for a second. I had eaten a whole pie in the blink of an eye! Then I glanced ahead towards the sturdy man, and he was attacking the apples faster than a starving pig would. I looked at my food again and thought, 'Why not? There's not much I can lose anyway, unless I die by choking with crab or crab allergy...'

So I continued with the apples. Once more, my wide mouth opened (only then I realized my mouth was veeeery wide) and I put an entire apple inside of it, chewed it twice and swallowed it, then went for the next.

-o-

I was as surprised as Mr. Sturdy when the judge assigned to me and my opponent announced I was the winner. I left the arena and went to sit in a corner as I waited for the preparations for the second round to be done.

I studied the place then, I didn't have much time to do so earlier.

It was some sort of medieval stadium. The whole structure was made of wood, and the ground in the center was bare except for the multiple tables placed all over the place were the contestants were eating and a wooden scenery built to one side.

The audience was composed of hundreds of people cheering the names of the contestants. Of course no one cheered for me. I knew later that the main point of the contest wasn't about 'eating', nor about paying to see a gluttony display, but about betting. Then I felt sorry for all the people who bet on Mr. Sturdy...

-o-

A while later 8 tables had been retired from the arena and I was sitting in one of the remaining 8, facing a not too tall guy with a lion head. I wondered if I should give up now, since on my table lied some whitish and wet stuff that looked utterly disgusting, however, I couldn't really resign without having my opponent eat at least a bit, since that was the deal with Regulus. 'Well, my opponent is a lion, maybe he is used to eating this kind of thing.'

The rain began pouring a bit stronger when the announcer spoke aloud, from above the wooden scenery built to the side.

"Contestants! We're about to begin with round two of this competition! The rules here are a bit different from before! The task is to eat the Dung-Eating Worm's intestines we've placed in front of you, if you can! You lose if you vomit, making your opponent win even if he doesn't eat the whole intestine! In other words, it's a battle of 'guts'!"

I felt myself dismay. Forget vomiting, I was about to drop dead because of nausea right there. I closed my eyes, and then heard the announcer yell "Begin!"

With my eyes still closed and thinking 'I must be insane', I grabbed my fork and knife and began cutting some of the intestines... I feel like vomiting even now as I remember this. The thing made some squishy sounds which I tried to ignore, and something sticky was splashed onto my hand. I pinched the piece I had cut and put it in my mouth. I can only describe it as the most horrible thing I've gone through in this game. The taste was a mix of sour, bitter and spicy, and the texture was juicy and made a disgusting sound when I chewed on it... I resisted to throw up once, twice, thrice, then forced myself to swallow.

At that moment, I heard a roar very unlike mine, similar to a lion's... I opened my eyes and saw the imposing beastman vomiting to one side of his table. I couldn't resist the impulse any longer and I vomited too as our judge announced me as the winner. Who would say I'd have more guts than a lion?

None of the contestants managed to eat the whole thing, and all of the victors were determined when their opponent vomited before they did.

-o-

They gave us an hour to rest our stomachs. (I was also told that the waiting time was actually used to renew the bets if the favorites had lost or some wished to bet more money). We were given lots of water to drink, but I noticed the other 3 players refused most of it and only used it to wash their mouths. I decided to copy them, and didn't drink too much water either.

The other guys were a boar beastman, a human woman, and a dwarf man. We were all soaked to the core because of the incessant rain.

I approached the woman and asked her why she was competing. She was, unsurprisingly, afraid of this strangely shaped cloaked me, but answered anyway with a straight face; "Because of the reward."

"Oh. And what's the reward?"

The woman and the other two looked at me with disbelief frowns, and the boarman asked, "If you didn't know what the reward was, why are you participating in this?"

"I was asked to in replacement of someone, otherwise there would be an odd number of contestants," I answe- growled sincerely. 'Now I know why no one wanted to compete, though! I bet everyone knew they'd have to eat guts if they accepted!' This thought produced me a new wave of nausea...

In the end they didn't answer my question and proceeded to look at each other and me with hate. Our clothes were dripping wet but they never dried, for the rain didn't stop. At times it was stronger then it was softer, but it never ceased completely.

When we were called for round three there were only four tables in the arena, set as two pairs. On top of each table there was a large jar of some dark brown liquid.

We were assigned each to a table and I found myself face to face with the dwarf man, who was about 20 centimeters shorter than me but looked pretty confident.

The announcer spoke and said the rules. The contents of the jar were a mix of squeezed insides of Giant Green Snails, skunk pee and leech blood. Which meant the mix most probably contained other players' blood... And we had to drink as much of it in one go as we could, without vomiting afterwards (or the first to vomit was the loser). The one to drink more would be the winner.

I totally felt like I was going to vomit what I had eaten in my past life if this contest continued. 'What eating contest! I guess this is called so because if it was called Throwing Up contest then no one would participate!' I raised my eyes from my jar and saw that my opponent didn't seem as confident as before...

"Begin!"

I grabbed the jar, and began gulping the thing down. It was a gooish, bitter, utterly stinky, a bit spicy and you could clearly feel the metallic taste characteristic of blood in it. When I thought about what I was drinking I couldn't swallow more than three drinks, so I placed the jar on the table again. I resisted the urge to vomit because the sensation was horrible and I was a lady, and vomiting twice in a row in front of an audience would be unsightly... A moment later the dwarf also lowered his jar, and also had to resist the urge to vomit. Once he recovered he sent me a glance that said 'So you lost, eh?' before having to stop himself from retching once more.

Our judge took my jar, put it side by side with the dwarf's and said, "Player Millea has won."

My jaw slacked open. And also the dwarf's. How was it possible? Well, my mouth and my throat are simply BIG, so three gulps of my jar were enough to win against the eight gulps the dwarf took.

-o-

After fifteen minutes of wait, in which I asked for a basin and threw up the disgusting mix and everything that may still have been in my stomach (I was told later that this rest was also meant for people to change or renew their bets) I was face to face with the boarman, who had won against the woman in the previous round.

In between us there were two long tables, filled with sandwiches from side to side plus a jar of water in front of us. And there was a judge standing by our side, meant to count how many sandwiches we ate. Most of the crowd cheered for the boarman ('Piggly! Piggly!') And a few here and there were bellowing my name! I felt sorry for them, I could tell the guy in front of me was a pro at eating. I remembered during those 15 minutes that a hundred years ago people practiced this kind of competitions in real life too, and the winners were usually people that were considered pros at mass-eating.

But in those 15 minutes my stomach had become completely empty, and you know, after you vomit you always feel somewhat hungry...

"Begin!"

The competition lasted 35 minutes, in which I had begun eating as fast as I could to calm my hunger, but then I saw my opponent smiling and eating very slowly. 'So the trick is to eat slowly?' I immediately slowed down, drinking water from time to time as he did, and chewing a lot. I was amazed by the amount of food that could fit inside of me. I was glad this wasn't the real world, I'd have to go on a diet after this!

But at some point (the minute 35), my opponent couldn't eat anymore, and, I was declared the winner! I stood up, and I was asked by the announcer to remove my hood. I hesitated, but thought, 'It should be fun to see this many people making weird faces at the same time!' So I giggled (greegreegree) and removed my drenched hood. As I expected, the audience went silent on the spot. After a few seconds, a few murmurs could be heard here and there and then most people were asking out loud 'Just what in the world is that?'

I felt like laughing. 'Enjoy the game', I told myself, so I relaxed and kept silent as I heard the puzzled players talk amongst themselves.

"YOU!" The boarman had stood up with difficulty from his seat and was pointing at me with a thick finger. "I've been tricked! That's an NPC, not a player!"

"You're wrong," I growled with an eyebrow lifted (although it looked if I had lifted only one side of my only hairy brow) "I'm a player!"

"Lies! I've been set up!" Bellowed the infuriated wild pig. A heavy hammer appeared in his right hand, and then said hammer came flying towards me before the judge who was standing by his side could stop it.

It happened too fast for me to dodge. The weapon hit bulls eye (trolls eye); and the next thing I knew I was falling backwards and then 'falling upwards' as a pillar of white light.

-o-

The level-18-me left Rain Town's rebirth point under a heavy rain and crept to the closest tree. I elegantly placed one hand on its trunk, and proceeded to throw up 51 sandwiches on the tree's roots. I was feeling terrible; as I threw up, all the disgusting stuff I swallowed came back to my mind, making me retch again.

I was like that for a while, and when I finally calmed down, there was a small crowd of people staring at me... 'Waaahh! So embarrassing! I wanna cry!' If I had a normally colored skin then my face'd be purple (between a red blush and blue from nausea).

The announcer of the contest (a celestial man who seemed to be a priest) approached me with a sigh and spoke.

"Player Millea, we're very sorry for what happened, but still, we congratulate you for your victory. It's a pity we couldn't hand you the prize in the stadium, but since you don't look too good..."

'Ah, so my face reflects that I feel miserably bad at the moment...' He had two things in his hands; a small bag, only big enough to contain one coin, and a long box which at first glance would contain a sword.

He handed me the small bag first. It was wet because of the rain, and was a bit heavy. I separated myself from the tree and motioned the people to follow me (the idea of talking to people when standing by your own... Yeah, you get what I mean) and I opened the bag.

I nearly fainted. "A-a crystal coin?" My eyes went as wide as they could go, and I turned to look at the announcer. "The prize was this big?" All the other people around me looked as surprised as me.

"Actually, it's the first time someone has won such a big prize," he replied. "The prize the winner gets is a percentage of the bets he or she won, and most of the people bet on your opponent's favor, Nazren, so when you won, the sum of money was immensely large. This competition is held once every three days and Nazren had win all of our competitions, but because of this his prize is always small since it has to be divided in between hundreds of players. This time, however, only ten people bet on you, so all the bet's money has only been divided in between you and them!"

I felt I didn't quite understand what he said, but it didn't really matter, I won a crystal coin! That should definitely count as a lucky event, right? Even if I had been killed in the end, right?

He handed me then the long box, which was totally wet on the outside, and opened it to find a silver sabre.

"That sabre is not made to fight", explained the man, "but it's made to be sold at a weapon shop exclusively." I looked puzzled so he explained more. "That way you can buy any weapon you may need or improve your equipment no matter what your class may be. If the prize was a fine sword archers would probably gift the sword to their team's warrior, and they prize wouldn't be useful for them."

"Oh. Then I accept this prize with utmost gratitude." I bowed, but he said it was fine, that I won fair and square.

The next to speak to me was Regulus.

"I didn't really expect you to win..."

"Grehgreh (hehe), me neither!"

"Here." He handed me a big bag. I opened it, and saw it was filled with dried meat. "This is what I promised, and I also added a map so you should have no problems to reach Star City within a few days."

"Ah! Thanks a lot!" I bowed to him too.

"It's okay, we also won a big sum of money thanks to you."

I looked into the bag again, and asked "But you still bought me the cheapest food for traveling you could find?"

He laughed and shrugged.

The announcer and Regulus then said their goodbyes, and left. Most of the people around me also left, but a tall young man remained.

He was a dark elf, and apparently was a warrior if the sword hanging from his waist hinted to anything. His skin was dark, but he was handsome. Not as handsome as Cutehottie, but handsome. He walked up to me, and tended me his hand.

"My name is Zak. I'm here to apologize in my cousin's stead."

I blinked in perplexity. "Whom?"

"I'm Nazren's cousin. The boarman."

"Oh." I looked at him trying to look for any resemblance, but nope, no resemblance at all. Then I almost facepalmed. This was a game! They could be twins and they'd look nothing alike if one choose to be a beastman and the other didn't! "It's okay, I guess. It's not the first time it happens. Hurrr (sigh)," I growled, dismissing his hand.

"I-is that so... Then let me treat you to a meal. He is a very proud fellow so he won't come to apologize, but I'd feel bad leaving things just like this."

'This guy's very kind!' I accepted his invitation, and we walked under the heavy downpour towards a small restaurant near there. Once again all the people turned to look at me, but since I was feeling tired I didn't mind them one bit. Instead, I told the dark elf, "Do you mind if we have this meal tomorrow? I'm feeling very tired right now, and I'm fed up with this rain. Can you tell me where I can find some sort of inn where I can dry my clothes and spend the night?"

"Oh, sure, no problem! Follow me."

He guided me to a large inn. Inside, there was a big chimney and a kind NPC lady tended to all of my needs. Zak said he would stay in the same inn that night, and that next morning he would give me a tour around here if I wanted (which I accepted) and then we'd have the promised meal.

The night at the inn cost me two gold coins which I didn't really mind paying! I mean, I had 1 crystal coin aaaall for myself. My room had a private bathroom were I enjoyed a warm bath for the first time in my second life, and I was lent some pajamas and a bathrobe so I could go to have dinner with Zak and the NPC lady whilst my clothes were washed and repaired by the house's nanny as a courtesy service. I looked at my reflection in the bathroom's mirror... Somehow I felt happy that the real me wasn't that ugly. Sure, I'm plain in both face and chest, but at least I'm kind of cute... My nose is not hairy, nor are my ears. Nor is my chest. Nor do I have horns. No arms in my back. I got the feeling I'd be very glad to look at Meng Hua in the mirror when I woke up!

During the meal, Zak asked me if there was anywhere in particular where I'd like to go. I told him the weapon shop was first on my list, since I'd love to sell the silver sabre I won and some other things. I also told him I didn't intend to stay for long.

"I'd like to reach Star City as soon as possible."

"Is that so? I've never been there, but I think I'd like to see one of the main cities." As he said this, he looked at me with some sort of 'I'm-waiting-for-you-to-invite-me-to-go' stare.

"...wanna travel with me, then?" I asked in confusion. 'Why does he want to travel with me? If I was in his place, I'd like to be as far away from this troll as possible!'

"Sure! Traveling as a pair will be easier than going there on my own," he replied with a soft smile. "When do you intend to depart?"

"Tomorrow after lunch." 'I need to put as much distance between me and Jarlaxle as possible!'

"Oh, then I'll have to do some shopping too."

I analyzed mi situation. I was staying at the same inn and sharing a meal with a handsome man, and we were to have a date of sorts the next day. 'Not bad, not bad, Millea. You're having better luck with boys than the real you, despite your looks!'

-o-

The next day arrived and I felt totally refreshed. To my surprise, it wasn't raining in Rain Town, but a dense layer of mist covered the town's streets as a white ghostly spectrum. I shivered when I thought about this.

We left the inn after a substantial breakfast. My clothes looked like new, my belly was full, I was clean and rested, I had money in my pocket and possibly a new friend walking by my side! So I tried very hard not to think of the ghosts or spooky things that may be hiding in the mist.

Zak guided me to the weaponry first. In the way there, more than a few people who stumbled onto me shreaked of fear... I also hit my forehead against some sort of iron pole placed randomly on one side of the street (I didn't saw it in time since the mist was so thick!)

Once in the shop, I got to sell the decorative weapon, and many of the other cheaper weapons the Flaming Skeletons had dropped. I decided to keep a small knife; very similar to a newbie knife but sharper and prettier (and with a +5 strength bonus), a cheap bow and quiver of arrows (to prevent myself to get an eye hurt when trying to make another one), and a spear; which added a 10 percent magical attack success, ideal to be used in my right hand when holding magistick with the left (or so I thought). And I liked how the phrase 'magical attack success' sounded.

I sold all the rest, which were mainly class especifical weapons (warrior's and archer's), and bought a small crossbow which would be very useful when hunting for food, a black leather vest which improved my defense and rose my HP by 20 percent, a string designed to hang a mage's staff on the back (which according to the macho warrior NPC clerk was very useful when running away, to have one's hands free), a rope, a small shovel (I remembered when I dug the rabbit trap some days earlier. This HAD to be useful!).

Zak bought himself a new sword; I was told it was a cimitar. I can't really tell the difference between so many types of swords. Nian (a RL friend) has tried to explain me many times but I always forget. He also bought a new armor which wasn't too impresive and only protected the upper part of his torso, and some protectors for his arms and legs.

We left the shop and he suggested we went to the jewelry shop. 'Jewells? If this troll was to wear a jewell I'd be seen as a transvestite again!' I don't know what kind of face I made, but he said, "Come on, you'll be surprised on the bonus jewells can give you!"

And so I remembered I also had treasures to sell. We entered the shop and the tending NPC lady made a disgusted expression. I forced myself to smile; I had to get used to that kind of treatment already. I sold most of my jewells and then bought an orange colored Blood Diamond (called that because it was said to be a gem very rarely left behind by a player's death!) which improved the Luck stat! It gave you a +100 Luck points! However, this kind of gems were made to be incrusted into a weapon. I looked at my most loyal companion, magistick, the Crimson Stone Torch. Zak told me I'd need to go to the smithery in order to get the Blood Diamond inserted to a weapon.

I also bought a necklace which had a round golden medallion hanging from it, called the Vitality Coin, which improved you Agility and Physique Stats by 50 percent.

And there went most of my money! Just that diamond was worth 750 gold coins... (I feel so much like crying... I was so happy when I bought the diamond, and I wished I had enough money to buy two more, so then most of my troubles would have been solved! But now that bastard stole my dearest magistick, my extra Luck is gone! No wonder Corrupt failed!) Anyway, I only had about 75 gold goins left when we left the place, and I asked Zak to get me to the clothing shop in order to replace my newbie boots.

I tripped thrice in the way there (a bad combination of thick mist and bad Luck). Zak offered to watch out for obstacles for me since I had a very bad sight (or so he thought). Still, he didn't notice a ceirtain random well without a protective barrier around it... I guess I have to remind you that I don't know how to swim, and that my troll body is quite heavy... The well was deep, and the water level was high! I remember touching the bottom with my feet before I finally died by drowning.

Zak found the level-17-me feeling dizzy outside of the rebirth point, and grabbed me by the arm to lead me to the next shop in the list.

-o-

When I got new boots (of black leather that matched my new vest) and I was placing the old ones in my pouch, I noticed something dark and round inside...

But considering the time, I figured we could walk to the pet shop after having lunch. After all, we still had to go to the food shops, smithy and potions shop in order to stack our supplies for the travel.

-o-

We went to the potion shop, the smithy and the food shops next as you can guess, and we got some nice supplies (and bought something to go along with the mountain of dried meat that cheap guy gave me). Afterwards, we had our promised meal in a very simple food stall (I was suspecting Zak didn't have too much money left) and during that time he explained to me the betting system of the eating contest.

When we were done and ready to leave, I told him what I had found, and that I wanted to see if I could either sell it or hatch it. He lead me to the pet store, and we went in.

The young NPC man behind the counter welcomed us with a warm smile ('Wow, he didn't get scared by me!') And asked us what we wanted.

I took out the shiny jet black egg from my pouch.

Zak widened his eyes. "I had never seen such a shiny pet egg! It must be a rare pet," he said, looking excited.

"Can you tell us what will hatch from this egg?" I aske- growled to the NPC guy.

"I'm sorry, but that only can be discovered once the egg has hatched. Do you want to hatch the egg?" He didn't seem affected by my ugly voice at all.

I looked at Zak, doubtful, and he returned the stare, but still excited, like a child during christmas.

'If I hadn't participated in that horrible contest, I'd be very poor and I wouldn't doubt about selling the egg. But now I have better equipment and I don't really need money for now, so I might as well hatch it, right?'

"Just out of curiosity... How much would this egg be worth if I sold it?"

The NPC guy held both hands out to me and I gave him the egg. He held it tight, staring at it seriously and frowned, then moved the egg to one side a little. Next, he put his ear against the shell and nodded. He returned the egg to me and announced proudly, "It'd be worth two copper coins."

"...I thought pet eggs would be... More expensive," was all I could muster.

"...they usually are," said Zak, wearing some sort of disappointed look. "Even Wolf eggs aren't that cheap..."

"Huuurrr (sigh). Since it's so cheap it isn't worth selling, maybe I'll just hatch it, to know what it is, right?"

Zak just nodded.

"Then I'll hatch it, sir!"

"Right, it'll be two silver coins!"

'Waaaaah! So expensive! Maybe I shouldn't hatch this cheap egg after all!' "...Hurrrr (sigh)..." But I paid the price anyway. Why? I'm still wondering why! Blackie has been useless from its birth to this very moment! But it dragged SexyGuy to me... Maybe I shouldn't have hatched it after all!

The NPC clerk asked me to drop a bit of my blood onto the egg so it'd recognize me as its owner. I doubted for a moment, for I still dislike pain, then I took out my knife and pinched one of my left hand fingers.

Both Zak and the NPC guy made a disgusted face when they saw a droplet of dark green goo forming on my finger. I shrugged. I let the green liquid fall atop the obsidian dark egg, and the shell began to crack.

**Ding! Egg successfully hatched.**

The cracks in the shell became bigger, and Zak came closer to it, eyes wide in anticipation. 'He is more curious than me about this!' I also approached it, and we stared intently as the shell cracked entirely... But didn't fall off. We both furrowed our brows as the egg remained totally still for a few moments, and then...

CRACK! BOING! "Grouch! (Ouch!)"

With a loud noise, followed by a weird sound, the shell exploded! We had to turn around to protect our eyes, but I still got some shell fragments in my left eye. When I cautiously turned around, a hand covering my hurt eye, in place of the obsidian black egg there was... A shiny black round thing!

"I-it hatched into an egg?" I asked stupidly.

"...N-No," replied Zak, with a disbelieving expression on his handsome face, "I... I think it hatched into a slime..."

"WHAT?" I looked at Zak, then at the black thing. I lowered my left hand and attempted to open my eye to observe the thing with both eyes. It was bigger than the egg had been; no wonder it had 'exploded'. It was, as I said, shiny and black, but also a little transparent... Like some sort of black jelly; without eyes, nor mouth, nor head, nor tail.

"..." Blinking rapidly with my hurt eye, I pointed a finger at it. "A slime? A black slime?" I used my finger to poke the dark drop of jelly, and it made a 'boing' sound. "Just... what..."

**Ding! System notice: Please give your pet a name**

"...the hell?"

**Ding! The name is free! Millea has succe****s****sfully adopted pet The-hell!**

"What?" I was startled. Had I just named my drop of goo- I mean, my pet, The-hell?

The look on Zak's face was weird. He didn't seem to have hurt his eyes, but they were a bit closed and his mouth was crooked to one side... As if thinking of how ridiculous this all seemed.

I looked at The-hell and sighed. "You'll be Blackie," I told the pet. "Now come, we're leaving the town."

I turned to exit the shop as I waved goodbye to the NPC guy who looked veeeery amused, and when I reached the door I heard a 'BOING', followed by some sort of watery sound. I frowned, and turned. The slime had jumped to the ground from the counter, and all of its jelly-like body was trembling. I blinked once, then looked at Zak. He was also blinking.

When the slime finally stopped trembling, it began crawling towards me. From the counter to the shop's entrance there were about eight steps of distance, and the thing moved unbelievable slowly!

"...How long do you think it would take it to reach the door?" I wondered.

"I don't know," replied Zak, "but maybe you should pick it up and put it in your pouch for now."

"Pick it up? Are you insane? I'm not picking THAT up!" I growled.

"Why not? It's your pet!" Zak said as if it was extremely normal to pick up weird jelly like things with one's bare hands.

"That thing is disgusting!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, really!" He rolled his eyes (I bet he was thinking something like 'A troll is calling a slime disgusting!'), "You're behaving like a girl!"

"..." I blinked, and frowned more if possible. "I'm a girl."

"..."

"..."

"...for real?"

"...yeah. For real."

"Oh." There was a brief silence, then he continued, "No wonder you picked a pink bathrobe at the inn last night..."

"..." 'Damn it! He had been thinking I was a gay male troll!'

And that's how Zak got to know I was a girl. Needless to say, by the time we finished this brief important conversation, Blackie was still midway to the door... So Zak offered to pick it up. It didn't work, however, for the slime struggled in his hands (or it looked like it was struggling!) and dropped to the ground with a BOING, and resumed its pathetic attempt to reach me. In the end, I walked over to it, asked Zak to open the door, and with a swift kick from me, the blob of dark jelly exited the pet shop.

"Rhah! (Hah!) I could kick it all the way to Star City! It would be a great stress reliever!" I smiled.

"Kick it all the way there? I think your leg will get cramps within the first day of travel! Why not put your pouch on the ground and ask the... The pet... To enter it on its-"

SPLASH!

**The-hell has been killed! Player Randy, XXX EXP points!**

"!"

As we talked, some passerby had spotted Backie outside the shop, and had used his double swords to slash my pet in four...

'So even my pet looks like a mob!'

-o-

And that's how Blackie came to be. And yes, so far, its only great attribute is... None. But I've never been able to get rid of it. Like, it's not my fault that I'm a troll, nor is Blackie's fault to be a slime, is it? So... Yeah, I've just kept it all along.

Well, those were most of my adventures in Rain Town. I was there for barely a day, but I experienced lots of things: 2 deaths, several throwing up instances, gaining 2 friends and 1 pet, I got new equipment, I got nice food and hot bath, and some self esteem. Yup, when I woke up next morning in RL, and I saw Meng Hua staring back at me from the mirror, I smiled. I didn't have any chest hair!

Chapter 5: 'To Get Some Friends, You Must Have Some Guts', End.

-o-

-o-

Tadaaa! After writing such a disgusting chapter I think I can't blame you if you don't want to read the next!

Btw, why are you reading this crappy fic? If you have free time then go read the Forgotten Realms saga! Now THAT's something totally worth your time... Even Yu Wo has read it, lol! Talking about that saga, when I think about kind hearted dark elves, I think of Drizzt and Zaknafein. And since Drizzt was already taken (by Aldrizzt XD) I had to name this fellow Zak.

And, well, you'll see SexyGuy next chapter. The poor guy's been dead since the beginning but got to appear after Zak, Blackie and Xiao Bai, rofl.

Oh, and I hope you all had a merry Xmas! :DDDD (and I'm dying for reading the end of Half Prince!)

-o-

After-afterword... I've actually made drawings for all of my main in-game characters... But I don't have a scanner! ;_; and the stupid mobilephone's camera doesn't wish to work properly. I wanted to upload troll!millea before I uploaded this chapter, and then post this chapter along with Zak's drawing, then next with SexyGuy's drawing and so on, but alas! It won't be possible for now... Oh, and Meng Hua should mean something like 'Dream Flower'... Or something XD


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